A persistent gender pay gap among faculty in a public university system

Abstract

Abstract Despite movements towards gender parity within academia, women faculty continue to be paid less than men. While previous research has explained the gap using academic rank/seniority and productivity, existing findings are limited by either their examination of base pay or reliance on self-reported data. Here we extend the analysis beyond base pay, link faculty salary records of one public university system in the U.S. to the OpenAlex bibliometric database, and separately analyze the gender pay gap in the base (grade) and other pay (off-grade). Using stepwise regression models, we find that faculty rank accounts for a significant gap in the base pay while performance-based variables such as H-index or specialization do not play a crucial role. For other pay, no variables stand out in explaining the substantial pay gap between women and men faculty. Our results suggest that a primary source of the remaining gender pay gap is the off-grade pay. Different policy approaches are required to reduce the gender pay gap depending on the specific type of salary being targeted.