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Closing the Gender Gap in Salary Increases: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Promoting Pay Equity

Author

Listed:
  • Alfitian, Jakob

    (University of Cologne)

  • Deversi, Marvin

    (Education Y)

  • Sliwka, Dirk

    (University of Cologne)

Abstract

We present a natural field experiment on promoting pay equity through simple modifications to the salary review process involving 623 middle managers and 8,951 subordinate employees of a large technology firm. We first document a gender gap not only in salary levels but also in salary increases. Our treatments provide for a gender-blind reallocation of the salary increase budget available to middle managers aimed at promoting pay equity, along with different variants of a corresponding decision guidance. We show that the budget reallocation combined with an explicit decision guidance, while still leaving middle managers discretion in allocating the budget, can completely eliminate the gender gap in salary increases. The treatments also do not appear to undermine the desired performance differentiation in salary increases. We thus show that simple modifications to the salary review process can go a long way toward achieving pay equity by preventing gender gaps from widening throughout employees' careers.

Suggested Citation

  • Alfitian, Jakob & Deversi, Marvin & Sliwka, Dirk, 2023. "Closing the Gender Gap in Salary Increases: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Promoting Pay Equity," IZA Discussion Papers 16278, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16278
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender pay gap; pay equity; randomized controlled trial; salary structure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects

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