UK 
United States
The gender pay gap is still a hot topic for in-house recruiters and agencies, however, new research has found that men are more likely to go after high-paying jobs than women.
A study carried out by Glassdoor Economic Research found that there is a “salary confidence gap” between men and women, with “men being more self-confident in the workplace than women”.
The research examined how gender pay gaps have changed in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Australia since Glassdoor’s initial study in 2016, which found in the US men earn 21.4% higher base pay than women on average.
Based on over 425,000 salaries, Glassdoor discovered that when comparing workers of a similar age, education and experience, the pay gap decreases to 19.1%.
Meanwhile, after comparing employees with the same job title, employer and location, the gender pay gap in the US shrinks down to 4.9 per cent.
"Over the past three years, company leaders, politicians, celebrities and more have called for an end to the gender pay gap."
"Glassdoor's comprehensive study put those words to the test to reveal that slight progress has been made to close the gap. Though a promising sign, it should not detract from the larger fact that significant pay gaps remain around the world, even after controlling for workplace and job factors," said Glassdoor Chief Economist, Dr. Andrew Chamberlain.
"Leveraging Glassdoor's unique salary and pay database, we're shining a light on the factors that explain the documented differences in pay between men and women and, perhaps more importantly, where unexplained barriers continue to slow the march toward pay equality."
Despite the pay gap narrowing since the company’s previous study in 2016, Glassdoor has recognised that a salary confidence gap now exists among employees.
The study found that male employees applied for roles that offered a base salary on average of £10,412 ($13,635) higher than the jobs women were applying for, leading to a 18.3% pay gap.
However, the salary gap vanished when the firm compared job applications from equally-qualified men and women looking for similar jobs.
Glassdoor’s research demonstrates that the pay gap is slowly closing, as the adjusted pay gap in the US fell from 6.5 per cent in 2011 to 4.6 per cent in 2018. Despite these promising changes more still needs to be done, as the company predicts the pay gap may not fully close until 2070.
