Status and Just Gender Pay Gaps: Results of a Vignette Study

Abstract

The authors present results from a multifactorial survey experiment conducted on a sample of Polish working-age adults querying their evaluations of just pay for men and women. The experiment was designed to investigate whether gender pay gaps are considered fair and to what extent they can be explained by status-based processes. Respondents rated the fairness of the earnings of hypothetical men and women with different ages and parenthood statuses in 21 occupations. The occupations differed in prestige and gender composition. The authors find that perceived just earnings for women are marginally lower than they are for otherwise identical men, regardless of respondents’ characteristics. Just gender pay gaps are largest among incumbents of high-prestige occupations and in male-dominated and gender-balanced occupations. The authors also find that motherhood penalties are not acceptable. In fact, respondents view both men and women with more than two children as deserving of a parenthood bonus.