Women few among Arkansas' high-paid execs

Information about the Highest paid female executives at Arkansas companies.
Information about the Highest paid female executives at Arkansas companies.

Only a few women in the executive suites of Arkansas' largest public companies can say they are among their firms' top earners.

Last year, six of the 83 highest-paid executives at Arkansas companies were women, according to an analysis of compensation data by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The gender pay gap at the top of Arkansas' corporations mirrors the nation where women often fall behind men both in terms of numbers and pay, experts say.

[SEARCH: 2015 compensation for executives of largest Arkansas corporations]

"There's an underrepresentation of women in fields that have the highest earning potential," said Anna Beth Gorman, executive director of the Women's Foundation of Arkansas.

"Women are currently working towards that parity when it comes to top-paying jobs, but we're behind the curve," she said. "We started out behind."

None of the six companies with a woman among their top earners had more than one, according to the findings by the Democrat-Gazette. And only one company -- ArcBest Corp. -- had a woman serving as chief executive officer.

The analysis was conducted by compiling data from the five highest-paid executives listed in the proxies of the 17 largest public companies in Arkansas during 2015 or the corresponding fiscal year.

The companies with a female executive among their top earners were: ArcBest, Dillard's Inc., J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., Murphy Oil Corp., Murphy USA and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Acxiom Corp., which won't release the proxy report for its most recent fiscal year until later this summer, had one woman among its highest-paid executives during its 2015 fiscal year. The executive, Nada Stirratt, left the company in January 2015.

"Acxiom bases pay on performance and on market data, which we assess through benchmarking the companies with which we compete for talent," said spokesman Sherry Hamilton in an email. "We believe that a diverse and inclusive environment maximizes the performance of all associates and helps us deliver unparalleled value to our clients."

Topping the compensation list of female executives are Rosalind Brewer, an executive vice president at Wal-Mart Stores with $8.4 million and Mindy West, chief financial officer at Murphy USA with $6.4 million. West earned the most of all the executives listed in Murphy USA's proxy report, surpassing Chief Executive Officer Andrew Clyde, who earned $5.5 million in 2015.

ArcBest Chief Executive Officer Judy McReynolds earned $2.2 million in 2015.

There's a benefit to having women in leadership positions, said Ariane Hegewisch, program director of employment and earnings at the Institute for Women's Policy Research in Washington, D.C.

"Companies that do not have a diverse [corporate suite] or at least three women on the board, they have lower profitability," she said. "You found in the financial crisis that some companies hired more women to lead them. Often you find you need a crisis to find somebody different to lead."

The other women who made the list of the highest-paid executives at Arkansas companies included Kelli Hammock, senior vice president of administration at Murphy Oil Corp.; Shelley Simpson, executive vice president, at J.B. Hunt Transport Services; and Drue Matheny, executive vice president at Dillard's.

"In our mind, we don't feel like there is a pay gap," said Kelly Whitley, spokesman for Murphy Oil. "We just try to look at it as equal employment opportunities for everybody."

Hegewisch said companies with women in executive positions often have smaller pay gaps. But, she said, women don't always have an equal chance at promotion to leadership positions, including chief executive jobs, at large corporations.

"If you look at the kind of career advancement of people in management, the fastest growth in opportunity and learning ... is when people also have kids so you lose more women than men," Hegewisch said. "For women, a kind of career-development system that is very focused on those kind of years is rather disadvantageous."

Sometimes the lack of women in leadership positions and gender-pay disparity is the result of bias -- whether conscious or not, said Maria Jones, state president of American Association of University Women.

The percentage of minority-group women in leadership positions hovers around 1 percent and 2 percent, she said.

"It's just a perception of what leadership looks like -- a white male," Jones said. "Women leaders can make companies stronger and more profitable, and somehow that message has to get out."

The Arkansas companies without a woman among their highest-paid executives in 2015 included Windstream Holdings Inc., Tyson Foods Inc., Simmons First National, and USA Truck, according to the Democrat-Gazette analysis.

Several of the companies that responded to the Democrat-Gazette's request for comment said that while there weren't women listed among their highest-paid executives in their proxy reports, they do have women in leadership positions.

"As required for public companies, we report the compensation of our chief executive officer and chief financial officer as well as our next three highest paid officers," said Gary Mickelson, spokesman for Tyson Foods, in an email.

"We don't publicly disclose the compensation of other executives, but can tell you our senior leadership team, which includes people who report directly to our CEO, currently includes four women," he said.

Windstream considers its leadership team to extend beyond the executives mentioned in its proxy report, ranging from all senior vice presidents to those in higher positions, said Debbie Northington, the company's vice president of human resources.

Several of those positions are filled by women, she added.

"Our philosophy is really to pay for performance," Northington said. "The women here at Windstream are paid on the same pay scale as any male counterparts so it is equatable."

Northington said that while Windstream had no women listed among its highest-paid employees in 2015, that will change when it releases its 2016 proxy report next year.

The company promoted a woman, Sarah Day, to president of its consumer and small and medium business unit, Windstream's largest business division, in January, she said.

"Our focus is just to make sure we have the best person in that position regardless of gender," Northington said.

It's not just at the top of the corporate ladder that there's a pay disparity. In Arkansas, women on average earn 75 cents for every dollar a man earns. Nationwide, women earn slightly more on average at 78.3 cents per dollar, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research.

Gorman, with the Women's Foundation, said 56 percent of incoming freshmen at Arkansas colleges are female, but only about 20 percent of women in the state have a bachelor's degree.

"More women enroll but they don't graduate," she said. "There are companies that are hiring and promoting women, but it's about the pool of women who are there and that are applying for those jobs."

The foundation, Gorman said, is working to change that.

"We want to introduce to young girls and young women opportunities to see there are career choices you can make that can lead to these high-paying jobs," she said.

SundayMonday Business on 05/29/2016

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