A Fuller Picture: The Additional Impact of Perceptions on Gender Pay Equity Beliefs

Abstract

Our research provides a fuller picture by building on factors explaining perceptions of gender pay equity. Similar to previous human capital research, our study further validates the relationship between human capital factors such as gender, age, ethnicity, educational attainment, and beliefs about gender pay equity. We go one step further, developing two scales, employee and employer perceptions, answering the call to investigate the impact of psychological variables on gender pay equity. Findings suggest that the full model, which includes human capital and perception variables, explains 33% of the variance in beliefs about gender pay equity, whereas the model consisting of just human capital factors explains only 8%. Employer perceptions of pay equity were significantly associated with beliefs that women do not receive equal pay for equal work, confirming the need to explore psychological factors. Implications emphasizing the importance of perceptions as an integral component offering a fuller picture when considering actions to decrease the pay gap between women and men are discussed.