Discussion: The Gender Pay Gap; Relevant to Interim?

Quite rightly, the BBC is levelling the playing field on equal pay between the sexes.

Although the recently published BBC pay report was high profile, there is a lack of recent data covering the gender pay gap. This should change in the next 12 months as more information becomes available, following the Gender pay reporting legislation that came into force in April 2017. This requires employers of 250 employees or more to publish statistics on the pay gap between its male and female employees.

I am interested to learn whether anyone has seen a gender pay gap in the Interim landscape? It is often cited that men get paid more than women as they negotiate harder on salary and are more likely to ask for a pay rise, is this similar in the interim world when negotiating a day rate?

We put these questions to our Network of Interim Managers and received the following response:

Andrew Gibbs - Independent Interim Director, Interim Manager and Management Consultant: Manufacturing Operations; Quality Improvement

“The only golden rule regarding day rates is that they are always ultimately down to market forces and the rate you get is whatever you can persuade the client to part with. Therefore the rate is always down to persuasion skills which I presume are (on average) independent of gender.....???? If I recall correctly, the surveys carried out by the IIM do seem to suggest that men are on average charging higher rates than women, but I can't recall any reason being suggested for this. On a slightly different aspect, I don't think that there is really any such thing as 'market rate' for interim assignments in any particular functional discipline / industry sector combination. Every assignment is different, and carries different deliverables, different anticipated profit, different risks, etc., and the rate quoted by an interim manager will be determined on a case by case basis and in such a way as to provide the client with a decent ROI whilst at the same time ensuring that the interim manager gets a fair share of the cake. All this 'noise' (for want of a better term) must make it very difficult to attach any statistical significance to the differences between average male day rates and average female day rates”

Nick Robeson - Managing Partner - Boyden UK

“No. In fact I would suggest Interim Management removes many of the barriers women have faced in relation to promotion and pay. At the end of the day you are engaged for the competence you have and your availability”.

Simon Gornall - Interim Manager/Management | Change Leadership | Category Management | NPD | Process Review | Supplier Strategy | Buying

“Nick's right in my experience- 13 years as an interim manager.  Regardless of sex, we are hired to go in, sort it fast & then leave ASAP.  Playing it that way leads to great re-purchase levels.”

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