RESEARCH BRIEF | Who Sees the Gender Wage Gap as Fair?

Suggested audience: Top leaders, HR professional, gender rights advocates, women in the workplace

Takeaway: If companies want to advance pay equity, they should increase transparency around compensation. They should also support women’s representation in leadership. Workplaces with greater gender awareness and openness about pay are more likely to identify gender wage disparities.

Contrary to earlier research, this study found that women are more likely than men to perceive wages for female coworkers as unfairly low. In contrast, men did not show a significant gender bias in their evaluations; their perceptions of wage fairness did not differ based on whether the employee in question was male or female. The study also found that workplace context shaped these perceptions. Women with female supervisors were especially likely to identify when women’s wages were too low, and higher female representation in management was associated with stronger perceptions that women’s pay was unfairly low. Additionally, employees who discussed wages with colleagues—indicating greater pay transparency—were more likely overall to judge wages as unfairly low, regardless of gender.