Dr Sreyoshi Bhaduri: The Data Behind Pay Equity

Feb 3

Dr. Sreyoshi Bhaduri is passionate about people research and analytics understanding how things like organizational structure, behavior, talent, talent acquisition, hiring, terminations, learning, development, and culture are related to the life cycle of employees at organizations. Dr. Bhaduri currently leads Global People Research & Analytics at McGraw-Hill, where her work betters inclusion in the workforce, and addresses global challenges using innovative research methods, data-backed and researched informed strategy and empathetic leadership. Sreyoshi also serves as Vice President at Society of Women Engineers - New York. In this episode, we discuss the pay gap in detail and ways organizations and individuals can elevate the conversation so we can hopefully improve pay equality in the world. We discuss solutions that can help narrow the pay gap over time.

“Be brave, be an advocate for yourself, and be an ally for others.”
-Dr. Sreyoshi Bhaduri

Dr. Sreyoshi was born in a city called Pune, in Western India, to an Army doctor and an Educator. As a child she was lucky to travel throughout the country visiting and learning about engineering feats. This is where her fascination with problem solving and innovation germinated. She studied her Undergrad in Mechatronics Engineering from Manipal University before moving to the United States for higher education. She then pursued her Masters in Mechanical Engineering and eventually obtained another Masters in Applied Statistics and a PhD in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech. While at Virginia Tech, she has worked as a researcher, instructional technologist, and instructor of freshman engineering. Since earning her doctoral degree, she first worked as a PostDoc leading statistical analyses for several projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and then, since 2018, has led Global People Research & Analytics at McGraw-Hill. Through her current role at McGraw Hill, she betters inclusion in the workforce, and addresses global challenges using innovative research methods, data-backed and researched informed strategy and empathetic leadership. Sreyoshi is passionate about bettering inclusion for women and other underrepresented minorities in engineering. She serves as Vice President at Society of Women Engineers - New York.

We dig right into some of the stats. It is interesting to note that women computer programmers earn only 72 cents for every dollar that male programmers make. This was a study published by CNN money that looked at salaries within the U.S., for those individuals whose job titles were that of programmer or equivalent.

In a 2016 study, economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn found that the unexplained portion of the gender wage gap narrowed dramatically in the 1980s, shrinking from between 21 and 29 percent of the gap in 1980 to between 8 and 18 percent of the gap in 1989. However, after 1989, the unexplained portion of the gap did not narrow any further, and it has remained stable ever since. Women today have more education and work experience, which has whittled away the influence of those factors on the gap. Human capital factors such as education and experience made up about 25 percent of the wage gap in 1979, but only 8 percent in 1998. This residual gap is also not uniform across occupations.

We go on to discuss equal pay day as the date in the year in which women would have to work to establish pay parity. It would take 200 years for pay parity and the pandemic is not helping the stats as more women are leaving the workforce. We need to discuss how we can close that gap.

The first step is to always be learning in your career! And be learning agile. Agility is different from ability. Agility is something that you can train yourself, over time. Think about riding a bike – ability is that you are able to do so, but agility refers to the varying conditions you can ride in – yes you can ride on a sunny day in the park, but can you do that on a sandy beach and then pivot to a snowy mountain? Improving your agility and developing it, over time, allows you to perform irrespective of what the conditions are.

We also examine the ways we can make improvements at the organizational levels to examine factors that impact hiring and retention. We share how managers can partner closer with their HR partner to understand pay issues in the workplace and also be an ally for their people. We also touch on things that individuals can do to understand their pay equity and benefits. Things like maternity leave, financial benefits, relocation, etc should all be factors in selecting your company. There were some tips on advocating for your pay when you move internally and definitely evaluating new companies for the full package they offer.

Lastly, we point out how key it is to ask for what you are worth.
Listen in on this full conversation and let’s all work to close the pay gap moving forward!

On this episode we discuss:

👩‍💻The data behind equality
👩‍🏫The value of being learning agile and lifelong learning
🙋‍♀️The critical need for women to ask for what they want and need in pay and benefits

Resource Links:

Check our Dr. Bhaduri on her website or directly on Linked In
Website: www.ThatStatsGirl.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sreyoshi-bhaduri/
Presentation: Educate, Introspect & Act - Negotiating Your Worth
Society of Women Engineers - New York: https://newyork.swe.org/