The pay gap between the sexes is relatively slim in financial advice

The gap between what women and men make for doing the same job is a blight on most professions in America. In financial advice, however, pay inequity between the sexes is relatively slim. Pay data for financial advisers collected by InvestmentNews show that female advisers who are not owners earn a median 86 cents for every dollar a male adviser earns. While that's not equality, it beats the median 79 cents that women earn in the U.S. for every dollar a man receives, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, women in management and financial operations typically have an even larger pay gap, a median of 74 cents for every dollar a male brings home. Within the advice industry, the pay gap shrinks even further when the data account for the specific advisory level of the professional and how many years he or she has worked in the industry. In that accounting, female advisers typically earn 90 cents or more for each dollar a male adviser does, the InvestmentNews survey found. “I'm not too surprised by that from [registered investment advisers],” said Martine Lellis, chief operating officer of Sullivan Bruyette Speros & Blayney. “If you are building a business based on fiduciary duty, that mindset is applicable to putting employees' interests first, too.” (Related: The inaugral InvestmentNews Women to Watch list) And compensation for non-RIA advisers is likely to be tied to production, with formulas that would be based on sales, not one's sex, she said. The 2015 InvestmentNews Adviser Compensation and Staffing Study, based on interviews of 3,300 individuals at 363 independent advisory firms, found that among professionals in the lead adviser role, men with eight to 10 years' experience earn a median of $136,167 per year in total compensation, about 5% greater than the $129,500 a comparable woman earns. With 20 to 30 years' experience, the gap for lead advisers is about 6%, with men earning $187,065 and women earning a median of $176,145. At the next level down, service adviser, women actually averaged higher median compensation than men — $66,000 to $60,000 — during the first three years in the role. At the 16-20 year mark, the two are nearly identical at $99,000. At the third level, support adviser, women begin with about a 9% shortfall, but after the third year, the salary difference narrows to 3%. At the eight- to 10-year level, female support advisers earn more, a median $76,250, to $75,000 for men.The median disparity is even greater at 11 to 15 years: Women make $72,370 to a man's $69,500. “Advisers are doing an excellent job of using an objective pay scale for advisers,” said Matt Sirinides, senior research analyst at InvestmentNews. But the statistics take a discouraging turn when it comes to compensation among advisory firm owners. There is a large disparity, and it seems to be greater the longer one has been in the industry. Among owners with eight to 10 years' experience, men make about 14% more than women, but that gap nearly doubles by the time the owners have 30 years or more of experience, the InvestmentNews data showed. Male owners with 30-plus years earn an average $445,750, compared with $329,624 for female owners with the same experience level. Women may be getting a smaller portion of profits at advisory firms because they became owners in the firm later than their male partners, Ms. Lellis said. “That may just be a symptom of how the business started, mostly by men,” she said. There also may be operational differences to blame for this, said Angie Herbers, co-founder and chief executive of Kaleido. Female advisory firm owners tend to do what “feels right” as opposed to following good business principles, she said. “They are more giving to the clients and often overserve the client base,” she said. “The bottom line is women need to take the "emotion' out of running their business.”