Aging the gap: the compensation among men and women executives

Marta M. Elvira, Cristina Quintana-García and Isabel Villamor

Journal of Management & Organization, 2025, vol. 31, issue 4, 2195-2212

Abstract: In this study, we explore how early career advancement affects the gender pay gap among top executives and argue that an employee's age at attainment of an executive position serves as a signal that helps reduce biases toward women, thereby lowering gender pay differentials. We analyze career data of 803 executives from public high-technology manufacturing firms in the United States by collecting information from ExecuComp, Marquis Who's Who, LinkedIn, and Bloomberg. Our results indicate that attaining a top management position at a young age has a positive effect on pay, particularly among women, and this effect is due to the variable portion of compensation, which represents a large proportion of compensation among top executives. Further, recent research has identified a pay premium among high-potential female managers, although its key drivers remain unclear. This paper explores age as an observable signal that influences this premium and reduces the gender pay gap.

Date: 2025
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