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Entrepreneurship and the Gender Pay Gap: Do Male and Female Business Owners Earn Equally?

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Research on wages in the U.S. reveals that women in traditional office jobs earn about 76 cents to every dollar earned by men, but how about entrepreneurs? The latest insights from the American Express OPEN Small Business Monitor reveal a surprising statistic on the salaries female business owners pay themselves.

You might think that women-owned businesses would help close the gender pay gap, but female CEOs pay themselves the same 76 cents on the dollar compared to what male CEOs pay themselves. “Across the board, there’s a tendency for female entrepreneurs to pay themselves last,” said Julie Weeks, the president and CEO of Womenable, to Forbes. “Any extra revenue is generally used to pay employees, bring on new hires or reinvest in the company.”

Want more bad news, ladies? Female entrepreneurs pay themselves a salary just 41 percent of the time, whereas male entrepreneurs pay themselves 53 percent of the time. What do you think it will take for women business owners to have more of a “me first” attitude when it comes to pay?

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(Photo credit: Victor1558/Flickr)

Marissa Brassfield
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You are asserting that female CEOs invest more profits back in to the company and pay their workers more proportionately. Is there any evidence to back this up or did you just pull this out of your imagination? The logical reason why women may _on average_ make less than men would be a combination of factors, none of which involve blatant discrimination. The “76 cents” statistics you have presented are manipulative and obviously so, as I will demonstrate. For example,… Read more »

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