Male chief financial officers at U.S. companies are paid anaverage of 16 percent more than their female counterparts ofsimilar age at companies with comparable market values, accordingto a study.

The report by New York-based GMI Ratings, a corporate governanceconsulting firm, is based on an analysis of salaries of more than1,900 CFOs at Russell 3000 Index companies with a market value of$100 million to $25 billion in 2010. About 150 of the CFOs werewomen.

Female CFOs received on average $1.32 million a year in totalcompensation, compared with $1.54 million for their malecounterparts, according to a model based on the analysis.Compensation included base salary, bonuses, grant-date value ofstock awards and stock option grants and retirement benefits.

The firm said its model accurately predicted a CFO's gender. Thelower the salary, the more likely the CFO would be female.

“It's a pretty strong argument that men and women are not beingtreated the same,” said Tom White, director of quantitativeresearch for GMI and co-author of the report, which will bereleased as soon as tomorrow.

He said he and his co-author, Kimberly Gladman, director ofresearch and risk analytics, built the model to test whether womenare paid less than men because of factors like age or experience ata company, or simply because they are female.

The study found that, though female CFOs tended to be youngerthan their male counterparts, there was virtually no difference intheir average tenure at a company. The women on average served on agreater number of boards. Female CFOs were rare at the two extremesof market capitalization.

“We tried to turn the question around a little bit,” White saidin an interview. “We thought: If men and women are truly being paidthe same, then their compensation won't have any predictive valueon their gender — it should be irrelevant.”

Using the model, White and Gladman found that, even afteraccounting for other factors that might affect CFO pay, includingmarket capitalization and chief executive officer pay levels, theaverage female CFO would earn about $215,000 more if she weremale.

“To the extent that this kind of ongoing differential exists andis unexplained, it represents a failure of boards to address animportant cultural issue, which is fairness,” said Eleanor Bloxham,CEO of Value Alliance Co., a board advisory firm in Westerville,Ohio.

“There is real discrimination, but nobody wants to deal withit,” Bloxham said in an interview. The people who have made it tothese levels don't necessarily want to have that conversation abouttheir gender with the company they work for. They're notnecessarily going to raise it.''

Other Factors

She said the problem may be exacerbated by a lack of women oncompany boards who could advocate for female executives.

The GMI study didn't account for the possibility that femaleCFOs could have shorter work histories due to being more likelythan men to interrupt their careers to bear and care for children,according to the report.

The study also didn't consider the possibility that women mightbe more likely to move up within a single organization over time.Men may be more likely to switch employers as they move up, afactor that could lead to higher pay.

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