September 09, 2016

No evidence that women are less likely to ask for a pay rise, says study

The gender pay gap is not due to women being less likely to ask for a raise, as is sometimes claimed, according to a new study.

The study, published by the University of Warwick, found that women are just as likely to ask for a pay increase as men, but are less likely to get one.

The authors argue that previous analysis has been skewed by not differentiating between full- and part-time workers. Comparing workers like-for-like, they found that women were 25% less likely to get a pay increase when they asked for one.

They also found no evidence for the theory that women are less likely to ask for a pay increase because they are more wary of upsetting relationships in the workplace.

The study, which drew on data collated as part of the Australian Workplace Relations Study in 2013–2014, concludes that women are paid less in part due to direct gender discrimination, rather than differences in behavior.

Co-author Amanda Goodall, of Cass Business School and IZA, told the BBC: “The study potentially has an upside. Young women today are negotiating their pay and conditions more successfully than older females, and perhaps that will continue as they become more senior.”

In an article for IZA World of Labor, Mario Lackner asks whether differences in competitiveness can explain the gender gap in the labor market. He writes that: “A large number of empirical studies present convincing evidence that gender differences in competitiveness are formed early on in childhood and are relatively persistent, exerting a profound influence on an individual’s future career […] Any fundamental policy measure designed to address this specific gender gap should be targeted directly at early childhood education, as well as the primary and secondary education systems in general.”

The Warwick Economics research paper, Do Women Ask?, can be accessed here.

Related articles:
Gender differences in competitiveness by Mario Lackner
Gender differences in risk attitudes by Antonio Filippin
Wage compression and the gender pay gap by Lawrence M. Kahn
Find more IZA World of Labor articles about gender