Causes and Consequences of Changing Organizational Pay Practices

Abstract

Substantial scholarship explores how the employment relationship has changed since the 1970s, but most research focuses on large-scale causes, such as globalization and changing labor market institutions, and how they have reshaped the distribution of rewards across society. At the same, however, organizational pay practices themselves have developed in response to competitive forces, new management theories, and regulatory requirements. These changes in pay practices have distinctive effects on pay outcomes, including the wage distribution and gender inequality. This Presenter Symposium will explore changes in pay practices—including the shift from job evaluations to market-benchmarking, the rise of merit pay, and the adoption of pay transparency—and how these practices have reshaped pay outcomes across organizations. Changes in Pay Inequality Within Organizations Presenter: Peter Cappelli; U. of Pennsylvania Wage Stagnation and the Rise of Merit Pay, 1974-1991 Presenter: Nathan Wilmers; Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Equilibrium Effects of Pay Transparency in a Simple Labor Market Presenter: Zoe Cullen; - From the Job’s Worth to the Person’s Price: Developments in Pay-Setting Practices Since 1950 Presenter: Laura Adler; Harvard U.