Dr. Penner's study works towards closing gender pay gap in academia

Dr. Marcie Penner, Associate Professor of Psychology, together with three colleagues, asked the question “What is the impact of the gender pay gap in academia over the course of a career and retirement?”

To explore the substantial, long-term impacts of the gender pay gap, Dr. Penner’s team used a Canadian post-secondary institution as a case study to simulate the effects of the gender salary disparity across various academic career trajectories. Their research aimed not only to quantify the pay gap’s impact but to demonstrate how it accumulates over a career and into retirement.

The project began when Dr. Penner and Dr. Tracy Smith-Carrier, former King’s professor and currently a Canada Research Chair at Royal Roads University, prepared a policy brief in service to King’s. In their background research, they identified a significant gap in the literature—while the existence of the gender pay gap was well-documented, its long-term financial implications had never been properly quantified.

“As a quantitative researcher, I wanted to be able to quantify the long-term impact of the gender pay gap,” says Dr. Penner.

Drs. Penner and Smith-Carrier collaborated with Dr. Aaron Cecala, Research Officer in Western University’s Faculty of Engineering and Dr. Carol Agócs, Professor Emerita in Western’s Department of Political Science. Together, they brought diverse expertise in equity policy, political science, cognitive science, and computational modeling to tackle the issue of gender pay inequality.

“The best interdisciplinary collaborations are when people with different knowledge, perspectives, and methodologies come together in service of a common goal. It was an engaging and inspiring experience to work with Drs. Smith-Carrier, Cecala and Agócs,” says Dr. Penner.

Their research went beyond the salary wage gap to look at gaps in pensions as well. Because employees who make less during their careers also receive less employer pension when they retire, the team knew it was important to understand the long-term financial consequences of pay inequities and wanted to quantify the cumulative effect across both a career and retirement.

Their findings show that over the course of a lifetime, the pay gap leads to a difference of approximately a half a million dollars. A starting wage gap of less than $9,000 resulted in a $300,000–$400,000 wage gap over the course of a career, and a further $148,000–$259,000 pension gap, for a total pension and wage gap of $454,000–$660,000, depending on the rank achieved. Thus, focusing on inequities in salary alone leads to a substantial underestimation of the long-term effects of the gender gap.

These findings have been leveraged by faculty associations across Canada and internationally to negotiate means of closing the pay gap at educational institutions.

On December 5, 2022, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research began an inquiry into the long-term impacts of the gender and diversity pay gap for faculty at Canadian universities. As part of seven meetings held between June 20 and October 30, 2023, Dr. Penner was invited to provide testimony on employment equity in academia to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research.

On April 9, 2024, the Report of the Standing Committee on Science and Research: Pay Gaps Among Faculty at Canadian Universities, including several recommendations highlighting Dr. Penner’s research and testimony, was submitted to the House of Commons in Ottawa.

Dr. Penner said, “It was a true honour to share my equity research with federal policy makers. As my students will attest, I am a strong proponent of giving research away to the people who can use it. Being able to speak directly to government decision-makers about my own research and that of others working in the field, and to address their thoughtful questions, was an opportunity and responsibility that I did not take lightly.”

Dr. Penner’s work continues to make an impact. Her research is cited by the Council of Canadians Academies in their report, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Post-Secondary Research System: The Expert Panel on EDI Practices for Impactful Change. This report explores strategies for enhancing equity, diversity, and inclusion in academia and their potential effects on people and institutions.

Dr. Penner continues to dedicate her knowledge and skills to closing the gender pay gap, and helping to create employment equity more broadly, including for women and other equity-denied groups in Canada. She is currently collaborating with King’s Librarian Emma Swiatek, King’s students and alumni on a review of programs and policies to improve the employment outcomes of members of equity-denied groups.

“We aim to produce evidence-based recommendations for employers and the provincial and federal government from this work to advance employment equity,” says Dr. Penner.

In looking to King’s students, Dr. Penner hopes that the example they take from her are that the skills they gain in their liberal arts education, including critical thinking, research and communications, are transferable and can be used to advance causes they believe in.

Two of the courses she teaches, Psychology as a Tool for Social Change (Psych 3994) and Psychology for the Common Good (Psych 4694), teach skills such as how to use research as a tool to create the change students want to see in the world and how to become an effective changemaker while focusing on a social issue of personal interest.

For more information:

The Conversation: “Gender pay gap: It’s roughly half-a-million dollars for women professors across a lifetime”