Finding the right employer and learning to sell yourself are key factors in narrowing the construction gender pay gap, a panel of industry compensation and recruiting experts told attendees of ENR’s Groundbreaking Women in Construction conference Aug. 25.
The construction gender gap is narrower than in other business sectors, where some studies calculate that women are paid about 82 cents for every dollar a man earns, noted Jean McGrory, senior director of total rewards for Mortenson Construction and session moderator. A study by the data analytics firm PayScale found that “when we control for job title, experience, industry, location … what happens then? You start to see that overall in the U.S., we make 99 cents for every dollar a man makes,” she said.