Yesterday I had the pleasure of addressing a group of facility professionals from the Chicago IFMA chapter. While there, I spoke about the annual FacilitiesNet FM:Pulse survey, which is our look at how issues like compensation, job satisfaction and job security are affecting the FM world.
It will come as no surprise to anyone that the recession has dented FM pay. But when you slice the numbers a bit finer, some interesting trends emerge.
Last year our 2008 survey found that female facility professionals were averaging better raises than men. This seemed logical. With women making about $5,000 a year less than men, this appeared to be an effort by companies to erase that gap.
This year though, the situation was flopped. Women reported a median raise of 0 percent, whereas men reported a median raise of 1.96 percent. And still, the male facility professionals were averaging a salary that was $5,000 more than women. That means that for two years running the survey has shown women make about 7 percent less than male facility professionals.
This led one member of the audience to ask me: Was there something about women that explained the difference? Were they less likely to have credentials, for example?
After running the data, there are two things that jump out at me. First, men have slightly more industry experience than women (by five years). But women are slightly more likely to have a credential of some kind, and the two groups had roughly the same amount of time at their employers.
In terms of education, I didn't see a significant difference between women and men.
So the question is...is the difference in industry experience enough to explain the 7 percent gap in pay, even though women are more likely to have some kind of credential? You tell me. Sound off below.
Below is an early look at a chart that summarizes our data on male and female facility professionals. (Percentages in the education section don't add to 100 percent because of rounding). Look for a full report in the September issue of Building Operating Management and on FacilitiesNet.com.