Women earning more than men spark subtle tension in offices

But it has also sparked deeper conversations around identity, masculinity, and the cultural discomfort that can arise when women out-earn men.

Globally, men still out-earn women by a wide margin.

According to the World Economic Forum, the gender pay gap is at about 69 percent, with women earning approximately 77 cents for every dollar (Sh99 for every Sh129) earned by men. Alternatively, in advanced economies such as the US, the gap narrows to around 17 percent, indicating progress but at a slow pace.

But while the numbers point to inequality, the question is what happens when women out-earn men?

In boardrooms, offices and even homes, this subject sometimes triggers discomfort, embodied less by pay slips and more by cultural norms. For men, especially, the idea of being out-earned goes deeper than the bank account.

It bruises them

Christopher Sakwa, co-founder and managing director of Human Resources Development, says the issue goes beyond salaries and into social conditioning. “Men react differently. It goes beyond colleagues. Even when your significant other earns more than you do, the reaction is different,” he says.

“Men are egoistic. They have been cultured and even indoctrinated to believe they are the head. That belief comes with the idea that they must lead in every space, in every way. So when the person they have been conditioned to see as the ‘support system’ earns more, it bruises them.”

When it comes to career women, especially those in middle and top-level management, he adds, the reaction is less dramatic.

“Women don’t really see it as an issue. They are used to operating in male-dominated spaces. When they out-earn men, they feel it’s merited. But for men, it often sparks feelings of inferiority.”

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Promotions, silent resentment

This discomfort sometimes creeps into career choices. Do men reject promotions if women earn more?

“They will take the role, but at heart, they’re not happy with it. There’s resistance, it’s a silent resentment rather than an open refusal.”
Negotiation plays a role too. “Men are generally better negotiators than women. They push harder... So when a man finds out that a woman negotiated a better deal, it cuts deeper.”

The HR expert says that’s why it can cut even deeper when they discover a female colleague negotiated a better deal. Still, he says that context matters. If the woman in question is more qualified, more experienced, or was head-hunted for the role, men are less likely to object.

Are companies doing enough to address this dynamic?

“I don’t think organisations have reached a tipping point where they need to intervene because women are overwhelmingly out-earning men. But the number of women on boards and in leadership is growing, thanks to both empowerment initiatives and laws like the two-thirds gender rule,” Mr Sakwa says.

When it comes to transparency in paychecks, he says. “Openness goes a long way, if salaries are determined openly based on policies, qualifications and competition. People only get bitter when they think decisions are being made in secrecy.”

Pay secrecy dents morale

Another HR practitioner says that the pay secrecy is still ingrained, which sometimes makes the discovery of inequities inevitably dent morale.

“Our culture as Africans is very secretive about our salaries, so someone may not necessarily know immediately that one is earning more,” she says.

“At very junior levels, it doesn’t typically affect teamwork, but what it does affect is morale. Of course, if an employee finds out they’re earning less than their counterpart, whether male or female, especially if they’re working harder and have more responsibilities, that will impact motivation."

She notes that women, in particular, are starting to shift old habits of passive acceptance.

“Before, when it comes to women, our culture was more of, ‘I have a job, thank you God,’ and they would just take whatever they were offered. But now that’s really changing. People are becoming more aware of their value and negotiating pay based on their results. Women are negotiating better.”

Still, she says the progress has been uneven. “We still have a very long way to go. We still have many traditional beliefs around pay and unconscious biases. You might find, for example, someone tends to offer a woman less because she’s married and is assumed to have support, rather than looking at the value she’s bringing to the table.”

Those biases persist even in promotions, where men sometimes get bigger salary jumps than women in the same role.

Businesses, the HR practitioner says, sometimes will act when faced with things like losing valuable staff, but not out of principle.

Interestingly, she dismisses the idea that men routinely reject offers when women earn more. “I haven’t seen that. Men negotiate aggressively for the best deal, yes. But I’ve never seen a man turn down a promotion because a woman in the same team earns more.”

For younger employees, however, the tide looks different. She attests to a generational change in how work is valued.

“The younger generation coming into the workforce are not driven so much by money, they’re driven a lot by purpose. The women are coming across as very aggressive, the men a bit more toned down. If they feel it’s a toxic workplace, their mental health is not safe, the culture is not good, they will leave, regardless of the money; they will leave without a job.”

Shifting incomes, investments

While the cultural weight of gender and pay plays out in offices, economists argue that the conversation must be anchored in hard numbers and sectoral realities.

David King’oo, an economist, highlights it is more complicated than a simple “men earn more, women earn less” contrast.

“Basically, you would not be right to just say that men earn more than women. This is a correlation between the number of men in employment and women. There are more men in formal jobs, making it look like men are earning more, but in the current world, that is changing, because the current pay is tied to specific competencies and ability to do specific jobs.”

Where women are present in large numbers, however, they are outpacing their male counterparts. “I have seen this trend in hospitality, marketing, corporate sector, especially in organisations where the brand image of the company is central. In those spaces, women are really earning more than men,” Mr King’oo says.

However, when a woman earns more, Mr King’oo says that the ‘sovereign man’ dynamic is disturbed.

From an economic perspective, he argues that societies may benefit when women have more financial power.

“Women are better at resource generation and utilisation. They tend to use their resources for specific things that have direct benefit to them and their families.”

Psychologically, he adds, “They love themselves a lot and will invest somewhere that makes real economic sense to them. When you go to community functions, you will often see men contributing money more freely, but women tend to be more strategic, grouping themselves into investment-focused circles. In the long run, communities develop more if women have economic power, because they have a futuristic mind when it comes to investment.”

Consequently, the difference is also visible in how men and women manage money. “Women do groupings a lot, and they organise themselves for investment. Men, on the other hand, often go alone, they take a loan alone, and they buy land alone.

Still, Mr King’oo insists gender is not the only determinant. “Investment is subjective. A man can earn more than a woman, but that doesn’t automatically mean he will invest more. Investment doesn’t connect directly with the level of income. It depends on the individual because gender doesn’t really determine investment on its own.”

"Women will combine small resources as a group and consolidate to buy something substantial in the financial sector. That creates a very different demographic between men and women in terms of investment.”

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