Pay Transparency, Negotiation, and Employer Demand | WIP Seminar with Taeho Kim

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Meeting ID: 898 6555 3630

Abstract: Pay transparency policies have gained traction as a strategy to promote equity and inclusiveness within the labor market. While the influence of these policies on job-seeking behavior has been well-documented, their interplay with negotiation remains underexplored. Pay transparency may constrain firms' salary negotiation flexibility, potentially narrowing wage gaps. Yet, the ramifications of such policies could differ across genders, since negotiation tactics often serve as indicators of a candidate's traits and may be subject to gender-biased interpretation by employers. Furthermore, firms might bypass these constraints by offering non-monetary benefits or opportunities for advancement, which could inadvertently perpetuate existing disparities in negotiation outcomes.

In this project, Taeho Kim and co-authors, Brighton Chotiputsilp and Clémentine Van Effenterre, study employer demand (and their choices) for candidates who signal a greater intent to negotiate and how it changes under pay transparency laws. Specifically, our research addresses two critical questions:

1. Without pay transparency, do employers exhibit gender-based differentials in their responses to candidates' negotiation attempts?
2. How does the disclosure of pay scales affect employer compensation strategies during negotiations, and are there gender-based differences in this context?

They will conduct a field experiment within actual labor market environments, and they'll adopt the role of employers and engage real recruiters to assess mock job applications. These applications will vary in the explicitness of negotiation signals and the presence of disclosed salary ranges. During the seminar, Taeho will share initial findings from a pilot study conducted in a laboratory setting.

Our CIRHR Work-In-Progress Seminar series allows members of our community to discuss early-stage research. Future guest speakers include:

• How Individual Performance Incentives Impact Network, Content, and Utilization of Shared Knowledge: Evidence from Digital Trace Data
  January 24, Sae-Seul Park, Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at the Rotman School of Management
   
• Decoding Token Women’s Dilemma: Gender differences in Peer Influence in Male-dominant Occupations
  January 31, Hyeun Lee, Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at the Rotman School of Management
   
• When do employers update their recruitment behavior based on interview outcomes?
  April 3, Santiago Campero, CIRHR Assistant Professor
   
• The Gender Wage Gap and Redistribution
  April 10, Kourtney Koebel, CIRHR Sessional Lecturer