Does pay disclosure in job offers remove gender differences in pay estimations? Evidence from an experiment with students and job seekers in the context of Austria

Abstract

Pay disclosure aims at closing the gender pay gap by providing employees especially women with better salary knowledge, yet the effectiveness of employers’ practices is little understood. We use a lab-in-the-field experiment where participants estimate the salaries for several common pay statements for job offers which employers use in the context of the legislation in Austria. Our study with management students (n = 385) shows that employer practices offer no solution to the problem of gender differences, except for the practice of salary range. The replication of the experiment with the real job seekers (n = 242) demonstrates that gender differences disappear also for some practices, but not for the practice of mentioning excess payment (or overpay) options, which is common in Austria. This means that legislation addresses the gender gap most effectively when it encourages employers to display the salary range.