ON Partners, a pure-play retained executive search firm building diverse C-level and board leadership teams, has released its 2025 Women’s Report, analyzing over 1,000 senior-level executive searches over the last few years within the company’s proprietary database. The report shows the gap between executive men and executive women’s compensation is narrowing and women are gaining ground in senior leadership roles.
The World Economic Forum’s June 2024 Global Gender Gap research study finds that in North America, it will take 106 years for women to achieve economic parity with men. ON Partners’ research shows a better outlook in the executive suite.
The report reveals that the average total compensation for executive women was $457,000 compared to executive men’s average of $486,000. The $29,000 difference comes in lower than last year’s difference of $36,000. In addition, compensation for both men and women increased in 2024, with women’s compensation increasing at a higher rate than men’s.
A notable finding is that while the compensation gap continues to narrow, women come in lower than men on total compensation often due to lower bonuses and sign-on bonuses.
“It is important for women to evaluate their total compensation package, not just their guaranteed base salaries,” says Tara Flickinger, partner at ON Partners. “Companies are unlikely to offer a sign-on nonus unless there is an ask from the candidate in the negotiation process and the same is true on bonus potential. The latter is crucial because asking for an increase in performance-based compensation signals a candidate is betting on herself, which is music to hiring managers’ ears.”
The top senior-level placements of CEO and COO still have a wide disparity with women appointments coming in at 8.1% and 9.1%, respectively. However, a positive trend is that senior leadership roles (SVP level), which are often a pipeline to the C-suite, show women getting about 25% of the placements with total compensation being slightly higher than their male counterparts.
“The trendline of more women in pipeline roles is not at all surprising,” says Bryan Buck, managing parter at ON Partners. “The investment in talent development over the last decade is continuing to show exponential returns, not just with more women in positions of leadership today, but in the path they’re creating for the next generation that’s having a compounding effect. Women today aren’t just leading by example, they’re bringing it to life for those who are up next.”
Other findings include the following.
- The CFO role is one in which women are making strides in compensation. Women are just above 20% of CFO placements, and their total compensation is higher with an average of $450,000 to $440,000.
- Women are making strides in tech roles, which have traditionally favored male executives. Among the CTO and CITO positions ON Partners has placed over the past two years, the top earners have been female executives. Chief product officer compensation is also very comparable between men and women.”
“The CIO and CTO functions have historically been highly technical, requiring deep engineering experiese, but these roles have evolved,” says Nina McMaster, partner at ON Partners. “Today, these leaders are viewed not just through a technical lens, but as business-critical positions requiring leadership, strategy, communication, and the ability to collaborate across departments. Companies are recognizing that a diverse leadership team brings better decision-making and business outcomes. The result is more negotiating power for women when moving into these positions.”
