Why are women paid less than men, but given higher raises?

Summary by: Ian B. Mondrow, M.A. 

Gender differences in pay has been an ongoing issue for decades. Its saddening to think that these differences still exists but an abundance of previous research supports the notion. Regardless of industry, occupation or other variables, women only receive a wage 88% that of men (Blau et al., 1998).  Previous research offers a variety of reasons for this and they include: part-time vs. full-time, employment sector, industry and more. There are also arguments that woman receive reduced starting wage. Some researchers believe that women are less aggressive when it comes to negotiating salary but this is a controversial topic in itself.

Although it does not compensate for a slashed wages, past studies have found that women receive higher pay increases. Redyced stereotyping may be the result of these increases. Reduced stereotyping occurs when a manager does not have a sufficient amount of information to evaluate the individual and therefore base his/her decisions on stereotypes. When enough information is present, reduced stereotype is less likely to occur. Structural features may also be a factor in this gender difference. Many organization base pay increases on a performance rating and their level in their job grade. In this structure, employees that are paid less are eligible for higher pay increases than employees with higher salaries. Therefore, if women start off with lower salaries, they will be more likely to have higher pay increases.

Harris, Gilbreath and Sunday (2002) decided to put these theories to test. Using previous data from a government-owned, contractor-operated nuclear waste facility in the united states. 218 participants were randomly selected to participate; 174 were men and 44 were women.

In their analysis, it was found that seniority, education and performance ratings did not differ between men & women. However, compared to men, women had significantly lower salaries (on average about $1000 less per month) and were in lower grades. When including job grade, education level and seniority as variables in their analysis, it was found that salary differences decreased but did not put an end to the salary differences between genders. On an annual basis, women earned a range of between $1080 (in 1991) and $2004 (in 1993) less than men.

It was found that women received pay increases that were, on average, 5% greater than men. These differences diminished once job grade and base pay were added as variables. Furthermore, performance ratings did not impact the differences between gender.

There are several limitations that must be considered in this study:

• First and foremost, this study is about 8 years old. 
• The organization was new and employed individuals for only 4 years. 
• The organization work with government contracts and therefore may have strict anti-discrimination laws to abide by. 
• The time frame that was examined was only two years.

IMPLICATIONS FOR HR PROFESSIONALS

This picture does not reflect my personal opinion.
It is clearly a controversial image, but I like the
message at the bottom.

How can HR professionals avoid pay differences as a result of gender? This is a tough question and an issue that thousands have been fighting against for decades. First and foremost, ensure that both men and women are offered the initial starting wage. At that point, it is their responsibility to negotiate salary within the range. 

To avoid gender differences in pay increases, pay increases should be based on tenure or performance reviews. Having a structured pay increase guide that correlates with performance appraisal goals can assist in dismantling this difference. In addition, ensuring that managers are provided with sufficient information on their employees will ensure that they do not experience reduced discrimination. Most importantly, always base performance appraisals on a job analysis. For a performance appraisal to be effective, it must be based on the criteria that one needs to be successful in this job.

I am hoping that these pay increases and base salary differences diminish in time.

Source: Harris, M.M., Gilbreath, B., Sunday, J.A. (2002). Why are women paid less than men, but given higher raises. Journal of Business and Psychology, 16(4), 499-514.

Gender Schemas: A Cognitive Explanation of Discrimination of Women in Technology

Source: Lemons, M.A., Parzinger, M. (2007). Gender schemas: a cognitive explanation of discrimination of women in technology. J Bus Psychol, 22, 91-98.

Summary by: Ian B. Mondrow, M.A. 

Gender schema theory suggests that gender expectations are based on previous experiences with role expectations for each biological sex. The schemas are developed as a result of observing common behaviors among sexes repeatively. It is suggested that humans develop these schemas to assist in interpreting new information for the future. The Gender Schema Theory derives from the social learning theory and the cognitive-development features (Bem, 1981). Social learning theory states that children internalize the a framework of each sex based on the social practices observed in a culture. The cognitive-development theory proposes that once a child understands the framework, he/she begins to develop  a self-identity based on sex expectations.

According to Guten and Cohen (1992), employees are more aware of their coworker's sex than any other attribute (i.e. religion, race, age, etc.). Between 1996 and 2002 there was only a slight increase from 25% to 25.3% for the percentage of IT professionals that are women (ITAA,2003). There is also a difference in performance in regards to gender. When a man succeeds, it is because he is skilled but a woman who has the same success is often perceived as luck. Furthermore, when a man fails, it is a result of bad luck. However when a woman fails, it is a result of inability (Deaux & Emswiller, 1974; Feldman-Summer & Keisler, 1974); Taynor & Deaux, 1973). Given these current hurdles for women, the researchers of this study decide to survey Syster members about their experiences as a female professional in the IT industry compared to the general working woman.

218 responses were obtained from working professionals (that were female) and 85 males in college studying an IT related major. The male responses were only utilized to obtain a comparison of the gender schemas for men. Participants answered questions from the Helreigh's Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS), which contains 15 items that evaluate one's perceptions of the rights and roles that women should have.

Results found that women in IT (M =3.45, SD =.30) were perceived to have less gender schemas than women in general (M = 4.07, SD = .57), F(3,491) = 108.40, p < .01. Men in IT (M =3.43, SD = .628) also had lower levels of gender schemas than men in general (M = 3.71, SD = .58), F(27,175) = 58.23, p < .01. This suggest that the IT industry enforces traditional gender stereotypes [for both sexes] more often than other industries. Encouraging others to adhere to the traditional gender-schemas increases the probability of stereotyping of woman (which was described in the second paragraph) and their behaviors that can result in dissatisfaction or stress in the workplace. Women in the IT industry continue to battle the negative stereotypes that other industries have overcome. 

The study has a variety of limitations. First off, more participants are required to make a general assumption of the overall IT industry. In addition, the males that participated in this study were not working professionals and therefore their experiences were limited. Finally, the researchers did not conduct a statistical analysis to determine if gender-scheming differed between men and women within IT. I would have found that information beneficial when reading an article with a title like this.

IMPLICATIONS FOR HR PROFESSIONALS

This study focuses mainly on the IT industry. Therefore it could provide helpful insight to HR representatives within IT companies. Gender stereotyping still exists and to overcome it, employees need to be educated on inappropriate behavior and corrected when they portray these negative stereotypes. Diversity training can be helpful by starting all employees on a clean slate and enforcing the notion that all individuals can perform equally well regardless of attributes. Training alone is not enough because comments that occur in meetings or side-conversations can set a tone that permits the gender stereotyping.

Although more prominent in the IT industry, this reveals to HR professionals that the need to battle sexism still exists. Organizations need to emphasize that anyone can achieve with the right attitude and hard work. Walk around your office and listen to conversations. Do you hear comments that could enforce negative gender-schemas?

Diversity Training and the Design

Diversity training has been a controversial topic in the training industries. It is obvious that as trainers, it is not beneficial to try and change an individual’s beliefs. Instead, we focus on training behavior. For instance, we teach employees that any behavior related to discrimination can be reprehended. However, can the designer or facilitator influence diversity training? In my personal opinion, yes, it can.

If an organization has diversity training, I have often found that the training mainly focuses on protected class that the trainer most identified with. For instance, if an African American is facilitating the course, he/she may present racial discrimination as the main topic. I have seen my preferences in diversity as well. Why does this occur? It is primarily a result of our passion or past experiences. It is not bad to focus on one aspect but a trainer must question if the training provides sufficient information on other protected classes.

There a variety of solutions to assist trainers in overcoming their personal biases. For instance, piloting a training session with your peers can provide significant feedback. The trainer should ask their peers to rate them on how he/she trained on each protected group. Another suggestion is to create a training program in a team setting. It would even more successful includes individuals from diverse backgrounds. Finally, trainers should always ask participants to evaluate the training. There is no need to ask participants about each protected group. Most likely, they will speak up if they felt a certain group did not receive enough attention.

Diversity is always a crucial topic to train on but facilitators encounter problems when they view diversity with specific groups. Diversity is about embracing individual differences. It is not just race and sex but it is also hair color, intelligence, social class, and gender.