A new study conducted by researchers at the Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba and published by Emerald Group Publishing, global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society, reveals that among supply chain managers, men make an average of $14,296 a year more than women.

While 90 per cent of respondents had formal education after high school, the research suggests that as supply chain managers move up the corporate ladder, they are less likely to be female. There are ten men for every woman at the upper management level. At the early career stage however, larger organizations tended to pay a larger salary, although a gender difference of reported income was not significant.

The research, ‘Sex and Salary: Does Size Matter?’, conducted by Paul D. Larson and Matthew Morris used data from a survey of supply chain managers in Canada to discuss the implications of the results for supply chain managers and researchers, including opportunities for future research.

Dr Larson, who co-authored the study, said: “This research comes at a time when the gender pay gap is in people’s consciousness more than ever. A possible hypothesis for the gap could be that women expect lower pay; they are less likely to request a pay raise, apply for a promotion or take a higher paying role in comparison to their male counterparts. It could also be that women take maternity leave to raise a family which could impact their career in middle management or higher. Society, led by business organizations, seems to value the labour of child birth less than labour at the workplace.”

The study found several variables to be significant predictors of a supply chain manager’s salary. Salaries rose with the size of the organization, along with education level and years of experience of individual managers. It was also found that those who worked longer hours and had greater budgetary responsibility earned more money.

Larson concluded: “This paper is important in its exploration of links among gender, organizational size and salary and it comes at a time when there is a shortage of skilled supply chain workers. Small businesses employ nearly half of Canada’s private sector workforce and seem to pay far less than the national average salary. Therefore this shortage is likely to be hard on smaller businesses. By offering flexible working hours, a good holiday package and family orientated environment, more could be done to retain staff and bring new talent, regardless of gender, to the fore.”

The study, ‘‘Sex and Salary: Does Size Matter?’’ appears in Supply Chain Management: an International Journal.

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Natasha Hartley