Which do you want first, the bad news, the good news — or the other bad news? ▪ Alright, here’s the (first) bad news: according to PROMO’s 2005 Salary Survey, corporations across the spectrum are paying their brand employees lower salaries while asking them to expend longer hours and carry heavier workloads. ▪ The good news coming out of the survey is that women have made great strides up the corporate ladder. They now account for 41.2% of CEOs, owners, senior and executive vice presidents, vs. 27.1% in 2003. And at the director level, women are now the majority, at 54.3%, compared to 2003, when females were 44.4%. ▪ Great news — but success has not been uniform for talented women. According to a report last month from the Network of Executive Women, there has been a “stubborn lack of progress” in promoting women of color to senior positions in the consumer products and retail industries. Women of Color: The Challenge and Opportunity Ahead notes that only one Fortune 500 CEO is a woman of color; it quotes a Catalyst study that says women of color are only 1.6% of corporate officers at just 429 of the Fortune 500; women of color lag behind both white men and white women in promotion and pay. ▪ The NEW and Catalyst conclude that Corporate America needs to be more aggressive in establishing diversity plans, setting goals, establishing benchmarks and creating support networks and programs for women of color. We agree.
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