If woman really are getting paid less for the same work as men wouldn't employers do the arbitrage of hiring women instead of men?
In general, women get paid the same as men, within the error of measurement, and have for many years. The trope of women making less than men comes from an apples to oranges comparison. Women choose less lucrative careers, leave the workforce more often to care for children, and care more about work-life balance. The result is that on average across the workforce, women make less. But if you look at an individual car…
There is a fear of coming across as too assertive within the organization she is already employed in.
What’s understated is that plenty of men come across as too cocky too and get passed up within the organization and at other organizations.
But some men, with the societal incentive to get ahead, continues aiming higher at other organizations with the same playbook, and enough of them find the organization that is indexing for that attitude.
I dont have a way to quantify this behavior by gender, I frequently see women not considering it though, overindexed on getting the promotion in the org and navigating that.
The competition doesn’t care about their perception at the place they are already employed, and are aiming on getting offers all the time for leverage.