Achieving Pay Parity in Commercial Real Estate

CREW Network’s 2015 Benchmark Study Report: Women in Commercial Real Estate found a 23.3% gender pay gap among industry professionals. The gap begins to widen at mid-career and increases to nearly 30% in the C-suite.

Recent social movements have heightened society-wide awareness about negative treatment and pay disparities that women are facing in the workplace. Like other industries, commercial real estate is now under greater pressure to address these issues as companies strive to meet equality and diversity and inclusion goals.

CREW Network’s 2018 Achieving Pay Parity in Commercial Real Estate presents expert insight, data, best practices and action items for company leadership, human resources, and women professionals to close the gender pay gap. The publication also explores why the pay gap exists and what’s on the horizon for equal-pay-for-equal-work legislation globally.

CREW Network’s 2017 Diversity: The Business Advantage found that gender equity and diversity and inclusion efforts result in clear business advantages and measurable growth in the commercial real estate industry. Along with gender equity and greater diversity and inclusion, pay parity can benefit your business by:

• Enhancing your company’s reputation among community, clients and employees

• Improving employee engagement, which could lead to greater productivity and profit

• Attracting a wider pool of talent

• Increasing business activity and overall performance

• Fostering workplace diversity

• Increasing employee trust in leadership, which could lead to greater retention and productivity

• Decreasing employee turnover

More than 80 countries have some form of equal-pay-for-equal-work legislation in effect, while approximately 24 have some sort of mandatory reporting requirement. The reserch paper provides a snapshot of the U.S., Canada and the U.K.—the countries where CREW Network chapters and affiliate groups are located.

The research paper also takes a look at best practices of companies that have achieved—or nearly achieved pay parity, including Wells Fargo, Adobe, Salesforce and Starbucks, plus insight from leading experts and researchers on pay parity and hiring trends.

Key findings

Women and men on the executive level appear to be negotiating their salaries equally. Most candidates have outside guidance on the offer process from an employment lawyer, mentor, or HR professional.

Closing the pay gap could be determined by unconscious bias and how employers react to women’s increased and improved compensation negotiations. Harvard research found that for women, sometimes it does hurt to ask for more. In a series of experiments, evaluators penalized women more than men for initiating negotiations. The research paper provides tips and action items for employers to overcome this bias and for women to navigate negotiation.

Pay data is more accessible than ever through technology. Women are open to sharing their compensation information with other women, especially when they’re in similar positions or markets.

Companies that have achieved pay parity agree that it’s not a one-off event and must be evaluated annually and reviewed on an ongoing basis.

CREW Network is the premier business network dedicated to transforming the commercial real estate industry by advancing women globally. CREW Network members comprise of nearly 12,000 professionals in 75+ markets worldwide and represent nearly all disciplines of commercial real estate—every type of expert required to "do the deal." CREW Network is also the leading producer of research on women in commercial real estate. It develops research papers annually and publishes a benchmark study every five years to provide valuable industry data and insights.