No Equality in Equity

New research by Carta has found a new side to the gender pay gap: the equity gap. Carta conducted an extensive study of over 180,000 employees at 6,000 companies, which had a combined total wealth of $45 billion in equity value.

In their study, they found that female founders own 39 cents to every dollar male founders own. For female employees who hold equity at their place of business, the value of that equity was worth 47 cents to every dollar male holders own. These are striking numbers when compared to the average wage gap for female workers of 80 cents to every dollar a male worker makes. In the startup industry equity is an essential part of wealth management and growth.

A number of factors could be at play in the equity gap, namely: female founded companies are valued less and are owned by more people; less capital is afforded to female founded companies; investor and industry bias influence how female owned and founded companies are valued; and start-ups employ fewer female engineers, managers, and workers early on, which are the three groups most often afforded equity.