The Promise (and Peril) of Approaching the Tipping Point: A Preregistered Study of Salary Requests

Abstract

Though extensive work documents the inferior outcomes faced by women relative to those of men in salary negotiations, few solutions have emerged. Exploring remedies that might reduce this gap, we examine how female (and male) negotiators respond when they learn that women are closing the gap in intended salary requests. In a preregistered study (n=1015), we randomly assign business school students to three treatment conditions where we manipulate information on previous students’ intended salary requests for their first job interviews expressed in surveys over the previous five years, showing (a) a closing gender gap in salary requests from 11% to 4%, (b) a stable gender gap of 11%, or (c) a no-information control condition. For women, any information motivates an increase in their intended salary request. For men, information interestingly motivates a slight reduction in salary requests, an effect which is attenuated when it appears women are making progress in reducing the salary gap. We situate these findings within the literature on the psychological effects of position in status hierarchies, showing a basic aversion to being at the bottom (i.e., last-place aversion) and a magnifying effect of a perceived change in relative rank (i.e., status momentum). These results suggest that information on existing gaps helps to motivate women and men in ways that reduce the salary gap. Interestingly, highlighting the progress that women are making in reducing the salary gap—an outcome that is objectively true in many contexts—leads men to demand more than when presented with a static gap, manifesting the dynamic strategies that arise as we approach the tipping point in gender equality.