Staffing Industry Sees Gender Parity, But Wide Pay Gap Persists

The WBC Staffing Leadership Council – a workstream within the Women Business Collaborative (WBC), in partnership with executives representing staffing industry associations, American Staffing Association (ASA), National Association of Professional Staffing (NAPS), Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) and TechServe Alliance, today announced the dissemination of their initial survey of 489 companies on gender diversity and equity within the U.S. staffing industry. The survey found the percentage of women executives in the staffing industry is not above 20%.

In late 2020, the WBC Staffing Leadership Council launched its efforts to accelerate diversity, equity and inclusion in the staffing industry. Their initial efforts called for a coordinated approach to providing awareness of the status of diversity across the industry, as well as subsequent efforts to guide efforts towards a more balanced environment. The initial survey results largely reinforce our perception of opportunity to improve both representation and compensation equity from a gender diversity perspective. Key observations from the survey include the following:

• There is a profound pay gap between women and men – both within the staffing industry and across the U.S. as a whole.

• The staffing industry has a fair balance of men and women across its workforce; however, imbalance occurs as leadership levels increase, with an underrepresentation of women in senior leadership roles.

• Women CEOs bring a unique perspective to leadership – they are more likely to drive initiatives that create a stronger more balanced culture (including priorities around diversity).

• There is a lack of racial diversity across this industry, with people of color comprising well under 10% of all staff.

“The data in this survey and dashboard represents a significant opportunity to drive opportunity for promotion and pay equity in leadership roles” said Edie Fraser, CEO of the Women Business Collaborative (WBC). “The staffing industry supports the employment of nearly 10 million job workers on an annual basis. By encouraging a more diverse and equitable workforce composition across those businesses supporting this industry, we will by default better represent the workers we employ.”

The WBC Staffing Leadership Council has made the results of the survey available for review and analysis through a dynamic data analytics dashboard. Over the next several months, the council will begin to release a series of insights and observations resulting from our review of the survey results. This work will be done in collaboration with the work along the nine “Action Initiatives” of the WBC, which focuses on ensuring equal position, pay and power for all women across all industries and throughout the pipeline.

The Women Business Collaborative is an alliance of 44+ women’s business organizations working together to achieve equal position, pay and power for all women in business. To learn more about the WBC Staffing Leadership Council and how you can get involved, visit wbcollaborative.org.