Female CEOs and the Compensation of Other Top Managers

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dezso, Cristian L.; Li, Yixuan; Ross, David Gaddis
• 署名单位: University System of Maryland; University of Maryland Baltimore; State University System of Florida; University of Florida
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0000988
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 2306-2318
• 关键词: gender; diversity; COMPENSATION; ceo; TOP MANAGEMENT

摘要

We study the implications of having a female chief executive officer (CEO) for the compensation levels of other top managers of a firm. Extant theoretical perspectives, such as social identity theory, gendered notions of firm status, and loss of diversity benefits, among others, make competing predictions about the effect of having a female, as opposed to a male, CEO: (a) that only female top managers may earn more, (b) that both female and male top managers may earn less, and (c) that only female top managers may earn less. Using over 20 years of data on the topmanagement teams (TMTs) of the largest 1,500 U.S. firms, we find that women (but not men) in topmanagement earn significantly less with a female CEO than what they would have earned with a male CEO in a given year within a particular firm. We theorize that these results are consistent with the argument that a female top manager confers diversity benefits on her firm, which become redundant when there is a female CEO. Thus, the focal female topmanager is paid less with a female CEO than what she would have earnedwith a male CEO. Our post-hoc test related to the effect of the percentage of female members on the TMT provides further empirical evidence for the diversity benefits perspective. This study contributes to research on TMTs, gender, and compensation and should inspire further work investigating the psychologicalmechanisms through which CEO gender influences TMT compensation.