The gender gap in fair earnings: the effect of male and female supervisors

Abstract Research has consistently shown that lower earnings for women and higher earnings for men are generally regarded as fair by both women and men. Previous research has focused on structural factors to explain this phenomenon, but has neglected proximate relationships at work. This study examines how the supervisors’ gender relates to employees’ justice attitudes toward the earnings of men and women. We draw on data from two waves of a German employee panel study, conducted in 2012/2013 and 2017, to show that employees perceived higher earnings for men compared to women as fair. Exploiting our longitudinal research design, we find a change in gender bias in the justice evaluation of earnings for employees who experienced a change in supervisor gender: switching from a male to a female supervisor reduced the gender bias. This finding demonstrates that the workplace is an essential site for altering gendered beliefs about the fairness of earnings.