Exploring the Antecedents of the Gender Pay Gap in U.S. Higher Education

Organizational behaviorists have long argued that inequity in worker compensation is problematic. The authors use data on 254 public and private nonprofit research universities to evaluate the antecedents of salary differences between male and female full-time assistant professors. Drawing on representative bureaucracy theory, they hypothesize that female representation among the associate and full professor ranks, as well as in executive management positions (including the university president), will be negatively associated with gender pay gap differences. Findings support the hypotheses, although the impacts for many of the variables differ between public and private institutions. Important effects are also found related to a variety of institutional characteristics, including funding from state appropriations.