GENDER EFFECTS IN SALARY INCREASES: A SHIFTING PENDULUM?

A large number of studies suggest that in experimental reward allocation scenarios, females tend to underreward themselves vis‐à‐vis similarly situated males. However, the principal studies date from the 1970s and early 1980s. In the past decade there has been a substantial public policy effort, reflected in employment equity legislation and organization‐level initiatives,targeting direct and systemic gender‐based discriminatory practices. There is some evidence that gender‐based discriminatory employment practices are receding. In this study, involving 127 undergraduate business administration students, the student allocator′s gender was not a significant predictor of reward allocation behaviour. Even more provocative, the results suggest that a reward allocation bias systematically operated in favour of women.