Redfin, the next-generation real estate brokerage, today released new data on employee pay by gender. Gaps in salary between men and women employed at Redfin are mostly small, in large part because the company tries to be rigorous about paying employees based on objective guidelines.

Redfin calculated a weighted average to determine pay equity across ten job categories where there are at least two men and two women in that category. Redfin does not currently have enough data across a number of departments to make the same comparisons based on race, ethnicity and non-binary gender.

Although pay gaps between women and men were limited and in some cases favored women, Redfin examined the underlying reasons for a few outlier categories: agents, managers of agent teams and recruiters. Redfin found that gaps between male and female agents and agent managers are the result of men having higher tenure, as agents earn modest increases to their base salaries over time. For recruiters, Redfin found that the gap is in part due to the fact that some employees with the same title are more senior and closer to a promotion. 

"We're glad to see that many groups at Redfin have no major gap in average pay between men and women. But that doesn't mean there shouldn't be gaps in pay between individuals. We constantly ask ourselves how we can pay people fairly, but still reward top performers. It's easy to do one or the other. It's hard to do both," said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman.

Redfin increasingly relies on market data to determine when to implement pay increases for individuals as well as for all employees across a job category. Redfin has also taken steps to address the impact of pay history and competing job offers, which can impact gender pay parity. Last year, Redfin discontinued the practice of asking candidates about pay history, which can perpetuate biases in pay.