The Gender Pay Gap Among Corporate CEOs No Longer Exists, University of Alabama Study Says

A new study by researchers at the University of Alabama has found unlike corporate America as a whole, there is no gender pay gap when it comes to chief executive officers.

Using compensation data from Execucomp, the study covers all forms of compensation, including base pay and stock options, from large public firms in the United States from 1996 to 2014. The research team found no gender bias in the remuneration provided to male and female CEOs.

Dr. Sandra Mortal, associate professor in the Culverhouse College of Business at the University of Alabama and a co-author of the study, stated that “large corporations in America do not discriminate between male and female CEO compensation. Whether this is because the CEO position is so visible that it is difficult to discriminate in compensation or it is due to pressure from media and regulators, we do not know. All we can say at this point is that, when it comes to CEO compensation, men and women are treated equally.”

Dr. Mortal joined the faculty at the University of Alabama in 2017 after teaching at the University of Memphis and the University of Missouri. A graduate of the Catholic University of Portugal in Lisbon, Dr. Mortal earned an MBA at the University of Central Florida and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Georgia.