A report of the Ellevest 2018 Money Census

Ellevest surveyed* 2,000 American women and men after a political year of upheaval and reckoning that included women breaking painful silences, powerful men losing their jobs, and an unprecedented spotlight on sexual harassment and assault in the workplace due to the #MeToo movement.

As a company founded with the mission of helping women close gender money gaps, we wanted to know: How do women feel about what they earn, what they spend, and how their treatment at work and in the world affects their ability to get ahead? Do men feel differently?

The results revealed that women and men shared some key values about money. But when the questions turned to equal treatment, pay, race, gender, and how those factors affect how we think about money, the answers reported by women and men diverged significantly...

WOMEN KNOW WHAT’S RIGHT, AND THIS ISN’T IT

Men’s Blind Spot: Inequality

The men Ellevest surveyed did not fully see the financial and career inequalities women encounter on the job. And the women we talked to expressed frustration about work.

Is the playing field level for women in the workplace? More than half of the men thought so, with 58% saying things were fair where they worked. Less than half of women (42%) thought the same. In fact, 48% of women think they have to work twice as hard to get half as much as men. Just 25% of men agree.

And while it’s great that 61% of men agreed that a gender wage gap exists, that number does not compare to the vast majority of women — 83% — who insisted the wage gap is real. If you’re a woman being managed by a man like one of the 39% who didn’t believe it exists, you feel it. What’s more, fully 63% of women said they should be paid more for the jobs they do.

We also asked whether the 2016 presidential election had affected people’s feelings about money and equality. For many women, the answer was yes. Their answers clearly showed a concern about unfair treatment at work and in life that was catalyzed by the election.

The top two things women said they’re doing more of as a direct result of the election are “think more about money” (46%) and “stand up more for what I think is right, at home and at work” (also 46%). Nearly as many women voiced increased concern about unequal treatment of people of color (43%) and women (also 43%). And significant numbers also reported actively voting more with their wallets: spending, boycotting, and donating to express their values.

Men weren’t as affected by the Trumpnado, as the graph above shows. In fact, the only thing men were MORE likely than women to say the election spurred them to do was “feel optimistic about their future” — 36% of men and 29% of women agreed, roughly the same percentages who reported voting for Donald Trump. Generally, men’s responses to questions about how the 2016 election affected their perceptions and behaviors were more muted.

FOR WOMEN, MONEY IS THE #1 CONFIDENCE BOOSTER

But women have a blind spot too: what they’re leaving on the table

Taking positive action with their money is a huge confidence booster for the women surveyed. The #1 thing that makes women feel in charge of their futures is “putting away money for financial goals,” followed by how much we save (#2) and how much we invest (#3). In fact, getting involved with our finances had a bigger positive impact on how in charge women feel than our educations (#8) and the support we get from our families (spouse/partner, family/parents and even being a mother or a father) (#6, #9, #10). In this way, women are just like men.

The satisfaction women get from investing, saving, and meeting their goals gets even stronger as women get older. “The amount I have invested” as a confidence booster grew from 25% for women under 30 to 31% for women in their 30s, 35% for women in their 40s, and 44% for women over 50.

And the #1 thing women told us that held them back from feeling in charge of their future was their lack of savings. Number two was “too much debt.”

The opportunities in money being left on the table are women’s blind spot. And this blind spot can be very expensive, especially when it comes to not investing. Nearly half the women we asked (45%) weren’t aware that, besides the wage gap, there’s also an investing gap, where men invest more than women. We asked women who did know about it what they thought this gap might cost them over a lifetime — and the difference between their too-low estimates and the projected cost is staggering.

The projected individual cost of the investing gap starts in the hundreds of thousands for women earning $50,000 to $70,000 a year, about 2-7 times the amount women estimate. And for the average woman in the survey, whose salary was just over $100,000, the cost of the investing gap came out to more than $1 million — or 10 times their estimate.**

Even as most women directly related working to achieve their money goals to feeling good about their future, they’re vastly underestimating how much they’re being held back by gender differences in investing — and, so, how much better they could be feeling.

Women still have a way to go before they feel confident about investing and saving. Just 39% of women said they were financially prepared to face the unexpected, vs. 52% of men. Just under half (47%) of women said they know how to achieve their financial goals; that number leaps to 64% for men.

Perhaps because so many women feel their workplace is not fair, many of the women we asked did not get much confidence from reaching their goals at work. When asked what helps them feel in charge of their futures and reaching their goals, “the amount I am paid” was only #8, while “the fair and equal way I am treated at work” and “the support I get from my boss” ranked second to last and last.

Maybe the guys aren’t seeing these inequalities because they’re feeling pretty good overall? Men reported being happier than women about everything about their money: salary, debt, retirement savings, standard of living, knowledge, et cetera.

NO ONE’S BLIND TO THE POWER OF MONEY

How our shared territory can point to the future

What do women and men agree on? Money makes most of us feel in charge of our futures. For everyone, the positive impact of working on our money goals beat out every other thing we asked about: support from parents, spouse and children, education, financial knowledge, and performance, pay, and support at work.

We also share goals. Across the board, most Americans reported our leading financial goals as retirement, followed by traveling and paying off debt.

And there are encouraging signs that the culture is (slowly) shifting, at least in sentiment. We asked whether people agreed with the statement, “I admire women who stand up for what they think is right, at home and at work.” Not only did most women agree (85%), but 74% of the men said they do, too. And the 61% of men who believe women about the gender wage gap deserve a shoutout.

For everyone to agree that money is key to how in charge people feel about their lives is a good start, because it means that nobody is denying that these inequalities matter immensely. We believe that the best way to build on the momentum and power of #metoo is to expand the spotlight so it shines just as brightly on economic inequalities in 2018.

Put another way? As Sallie Krawcheck says, "We women won't be equal to men until we are financially equal to men."

Here’s to 2018. Read the full infographic below.

Disclosures