MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Opening Access to the Fast Track for Career Equity

Business leaders tend to focus their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts on addressing bias and discrimination because these practices are pervasive and discrimination is illegal. But in the process, they overlook situational factors that play a leading role — and are easier to address — in determining whether women and people of color get promoted and are among the higher paid.

Career and pay equity are inextricably linked. Women and people of color continue to be underrepresented among managers and executives, and often among senior professionals as well.1 While pay equity is improving for these demographic groups, the raw pay gaps (average and median differences between women and men, and between people of color and White employees) remain high in many companies. These pay gaps will persist until women and people of color occupy the career levels and roles that command the highest pay at a rate that reasonably reflects their representation in the workforce.

About the Author

Haig R. Nalbantian is coleader and cofounder of the Workforce Sciences Institute and a former senior partner at Mercer.

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