Legitimate but Unsuccessful? Gendered Expectations in Wage Negotiations

Abstract: Individual wage negotiations play an important role in the persistence of the gender pay gap. While women are less likely to negotiate wages and receive lower returns, existing research often assumes that gendered status beliefs render women’s wage claims less legitimate and less likely to succeed. This study advances research on pay negotiations by analytically distinguishing between two dimensions shaping negotiation outcomes: the perceived legitimacy of wage claims and expectations regarding their likelihood of success. We examine whether these two dimensions coincide or diverge. Using factorial-survey experiments with 3,300 respondents in Germany, we test whether women’s wage negotiations are perceived as less legitimate than identical negotiations by men and whether they are expected to be less successful. Preliminary results show that women’s wage claims are not evaluated as less legitimate, but are expected to be less likely to be granted, potentially discouraging women from negotiating and reinforcing gender pay inequalities.

Keywords: Wage negotiations, Gender inequality, Status beliefs