Perceptions of gender and seniority wage inequality and individual behavioural reactions in the organizational context

Institutions
  • Exzellenz-Cluster 2035 The Politics of Inequality
Publications
  Brüggemann, Ole Jakob (2023): Employees’ perceptions of co-workers’ internal promotion penalties : the role of gender, parenthood and part-time European Societies. Taylor & Francis. ISSN 1461-6696. eISSN 1469-8307. Available under: doi: 10.1080/14616696.2023.2270049

Employees’ perceptions of co-workers’ internal promotion penalties : the role of gender, parenthood and part-time

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Much research has focused on penalties by gender, parenthood and part-time work for hiring processes or wages, but their role for promotions is less clear. This study analyses perceived chances for internal promotion, using a factorial survey design. Employees in 540 larger German (>100 employees) firms were asked to rate the likelihood of internal promotion for vignettes describing fictitious co-workers who varied in terms of gender, parenthood, working hours as well as age, earnings, qualification, tenure and job performance. Results show that promotion chances are perceived as significantly lower for co-workers who are women (gender penalty), mothers (motherhood penalty) and part-time workers (part-time penalty). Fathers and childless men (co-workers) are not evaluated differently (no fatherhood premium or penalty), and neither does part-time employment seem to be perceived as a double penalty for male co-workers. All three perceived promotion penalties are more pronounced among female employees, mothers, and part-time employees. These findings show that employees perceive differential promotion chances for co-workers which indicate actual differences due to discrimination, selective applications or structural dead-ends. Either way, perceived promotion penalties are likely consequential in guiding employee’s application behavior and hence can contribute to the persistence of vertical gender segregation in the labor market.

Origin (projects)

    Brüggemann, Ole Jakob; Hinz, Thomas (2023): Do women evaluate their lower earnings still to be fair? : Findings on the contented female worker paradox examining the role of occupational contexts in 27 European countries European Sociological Review. Oxford University Press (OUP). 2023, 39(6), pp. 904-919. ISSN 0266-7215. eISSN 1468-2672. Available under: doi: 10.1093/esr/jcac073

Do women evaluate their lower earnings still to be fair? : Findings on the contented female worker paradox examining the role of occupational contexts in 27 European countries

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It is still a puzzling question which gender inequalities in the labour market are perceived as fair and which are not – in the eye of the beholder. This study focuses on gender differences in the perceptions of the fairness of one’s own wage and the role of the occupational context individuals are embedded in. Based on data collected from 27 European countries as part of the 2018 European Social Survey (Round 9), our study contributes to the growing field of wage fairness perceptions by analysing the role of the occupational context (measured as the share of women and the gender pay gap in the respondent’s occupation), and how it moderates gender differences in fairness perceptions. Results indicate that – overall – female workers across Europe perceive their wages more often as unfairly “too low” than their male counterparts within the same country context and occupation, and that this gender gap is more pronounced in occupations with a high proportion of women and higher levels of gender inequality. We interpret these results as an indicator of growing awareness among women regarding the persisting “unfair” gendered wage distributions.

Origin (projects)

Funding sources
Name Finanzierungstyp Kategorie Project no.
Sonstige DFG third-party funds research funding program 790/19
Further information
Period: 01.10.2019 – 30.09.2024