CNBC and SurveyMonkey’s “Women at Work” survey, timed to Women’s Heritage Month, reveals the impact of work-life balance, work schedule flexibility, salary increases, promotional opportunities and more among working women in the U.S. over the past 12 months
ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. and SAN MATEO, CA, March 12, 2024 – CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, and SurveyMonkey today announced the results of their joint CNBC|SurveyMonkey “Women at Work” survey in honor of Women’s Heritage Month.
The annual survey, which polled over 9,000 women in the U.S., finds that fewer women secured pay raises over the last year compared to the previous 12 months. Just 39% of women surveyed say their salary is higher now than it was a year ago, compared to 44% who said so in the 2023 survey. Also, 17% of women say their salary is lower than it was a year ago, up from 15% of respondents who reported a pay decrease last year.
Women are facing setbacks not just in pay, but also with promotions. 18% of women, the same percentage as last year, said their career has experienced a setback, while 20% said their career has advanced (on par with 21% of them who said the same a year ago). That’s not because of a lack of ambition with nearly every woman who responded to the survey saying she was either very ambitious (48%) or somewhat ambitious (40%).
The survey also finds fewer working women quit their jobs in the last twelve months compared to the prior two years. 9% of women say they quit their job in the past year, down from 11% in 2023 and 2022. Another 22% have considered quitting their job within the past 12 months, citing stress and burnout as a key reason for considering quitting.
Despite these setbacks, there are small signs of improvement on the job. 24% of working women saying their work-life balance has improved over the past year, compared to 20% who say it has worsened. A quarter of women say their biggest source of work-related stress is being overwhelmed with work, which is down 3 points from a year ago, and 45% of women say they “rarely” or “never” feel burnt out at work, that is up 4 points from a year ago.
“While we do see a decline in women leaving their jobs year-over-year, burnout and a need for flexibility remain concerns,” said Lara Belonogoff, senior director of brand management and research at SurveyMonkey. “The findings also suggest sluggish progress in salary increases for women, which underscores the need for comprehensive strategies to address gender pay disparities.”
Additional key findings from the CNBC|SurveyMonkey “Women at Work” survey include:
Reasons why working women have considered quitting their jobs:
- 47% want to find a job with a higher salary.
- 45% do not want to deal with the stress anymore.
- 41% want to find a new job with better work/life balance.
- 30% want to find a job that advances their career.
- 26% want to find a job with more flexibility.
Women jobseekers are finding fewer remote or hybrid job opportunities:
- One in five women not working for pay (22%) are currently looking for work and among this group, almost all (89%) say it is ‘very or somewhat difficult’ to look for a job right now.
- Women who are not working for pay or looking for work, half of them (52%) cite an inability to find remote or hybrid job opportunities, ahead of employers not calling back (43%), low pay (32%), skill mismatch (29%) and a lack of jobs in their field (25%).
CNBC Senior Media and Tech Correspondent Julia Boorstin will reveal the results of the “Women at Work” survey today, Tuesday, March 12th throughout CNBC’s Business Day programming and online at cnbc.com/closing-the-gap/.
Methodology:
The CNBC|SurveyMonkey “Women at Work” online poll was conducted February 23 to March 4, 2024 among a national sample of 19,743 adults, including 9,786 women. Respondents for this survey were selected from the more than 2 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkeyplatform each day. The modeled error estimate for this survey is plus or minus 1 percentage point. Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States age 18 and over.
Complete results of the survey can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/cnbc-women-at-work-2024/.
