Gender and Gender-Role Attitudes in Wage Negotiations: Evidence from an Online Experiment

Gender differences in wage negotiations have been offered as a popular explanation for why the gender gap in pay persists in the United States. In this study, we use data from an artificial wage negotiation experiment (N = 307) to examine the relationship between gender and wage negotiations and to test whether gender-role attitudes moderate this relationship. We find that gender-role attitudes moderate how gender influences the decision to negotiate, but not the outcomes of negotiations, and that forced negotiations do not lead to additional gains for women regardless of their gender-role attitudes. We conclude with a discussion of implications and directions for future research.