GENDER PAY DISPARITIES AND THEIR DETERMINANTS: AN ANALYSIS OF BASE SALARY, BONUSES, JOB CHARACTERISTICS, AND EMPLOYEE ATTRIBUTES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69980/w2hgjj72Keywords:
gender pay gap, base pay, total compensation, occupational characteristics, pay equityAbstract
The issue of gender pay gaps continues to be a significant workplace concern as pay differences may be due to gender discrimination or to difference in employee and work characteristics. The aim of this study was to review the base pay, bonuses and overall compensation differences between male and female workers, and determine the impact of age, performance rating, education, department, seniority and job title. The data used was a publicly available dataset that was initially uploaded onto Kaggle for a quantitative cross sectional secondary analysis with 1,000 employee records. The descriptive statistics, gender comparisons, correlation analysis and multiple linear regression were used. The results revealed that the unadjusted base pay and total compensation for male employees was greater than that for female employees, and bonus payments were generally similar by gender. The base pay and total compensation were positively related to age and seniority, while performance evaluation was strongly positively related with bonus payments. There were also statistically significant differences in gender across specific occupational categories. Gender was not a significant predictor of base pay or of total pay once these factors were taken into account, however. This analysis suggests that the raw gender pay gap found in this data is driven by factors in addition to gender, including characteristics of employees and jobs. The study identifies that the distribution of occupations, seniority, education and job position should all be taken into account when assessing issues of pay equity in the workplace and establishing transparent compensation practices.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Dr. Daniel Weber, Dr. Olivia Bennett
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