London: Women as often as men ask for a wage hike — but it’s the males who are more likely to get it than the females, a study has found.
The authors examined the claim that female employees hold back their desire for wage hike due to fear of upsetting their boss.
“Having seen these findings, I think we have to accept that there is some element of pure discrimination against women,” said Andrew Oswald, Professor at University of Warwick, in Britain, in a statement.
Various ideas have previously been suggested as to why women might be reluctant to ask for an increase in their pay packet.
According to the study, the reasons are that women don’t want to deviate from a perceived female stereotype and they may fear being less popular at work.
Using a randomly chosen sample of 4,600 workers across more than 800 employers, the research did a statistical test of the idea that women get paid less because they are not as pushy as men.
In the survey, individuals were asked a set of questions about whether their pay is set by negotiation with the company, or it is successfully obtained by a wage rise, or they preferred not to negotiate a pay rise as they were concerned about their relationships and about their levels of job satisfaction.
Using statistical methods, the analysis revealed that it is the number of hours worked because part-time workers feel hesitant to ‘ask’.
The analysis also took into account the nature of the employer, the industry, and the characteristics and qualifications of workers.
When men and women were compared, the former were a quarter more likely to be successful in obtaining a pay hike by 20 per cent of their present pay scale while only 16 per cent of females managed to secure an increase in their wage.
IANS