Huang’s advice to women: Do your research. “Use the internet and all the information that’s crowdsourced out there.”
Websites that gather salary information include: Glassdoor.com, Payscale.com, Salary.com, and Huang’s own Fairygodboss.com. Huang said she feels positive changes for women will continue because the public is demanding it.
“Companies like Nike see that it affects their brand for consumer purchases. We’re employees – but we’re also consumers.”
However, women are not only combating a pay gap, but also an opportunity gap.
According to research by Payscale.com, by mid-career, men are 70 percent more likely to be in executive roles than women. And by late-career, men are 142 percent more likely to be in VP or C-Suite roles.
This is abundantly clear when you look at leaders in the S&P 500, where just 5 percent of CEOs in that group are women. That number will drop when Indra Nooyi leaves her position at Pepsico this fall, until Kathryn Warden steps into the CEO role at Northrop Grunman in January 2019.
“In the mid-career stage, women in [Fairgodboss’] community say that there’s still political networks and a lot of barriers to advancing and that sometimes it comes with motherhood, sometimes it has nothing to do with motherhood, it’s just bias and political connections,” Huang told CNBC.
She added, “If you don’t see role models, that’s the number one thing people notice when they say a company is not a fair place for women to work.”
In order to foster a more equal work environment, Huang said women are looking for companies to have “good parental leave that’s gender neutral, so that men are also expected to take care of their families.”
In addition, she said women want a flexible workplace culture since women today are still primarily the family caretakers.
On the Money airs on CNBC Saturdays at 5:30 am ET, or check listings for air times in local markets.
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