Abstract
Over the past several decades, public administrations have attempted to identify how gender differences affect employment opportunities and social inequalities, which has led to a growing body of literature. However, sufficient and valid conclusions are not yet available to identify the reasons for the gender pay gap (GPG). Building on key theoretical models to explain the wage gap, our research, based on a short survey, aimed to identify which factors could be related to the perception of GPG among employees of small- and medium-sized enterprises in five European countries. Moreover, we investigated the possible relationships between personal characteristics such as gender, age, job satisfaction, gender orientation (which is categorized as ''Negative Gender Orientation'', i.e., sexist beliefs, and ''Positive Gender Orientation'', i.e., perceived gender equality in society), and the GPG and tried to estimate a possible functional relationship between the perceived GPG and the decision-making style. The results revealed differences between personal characteristics and perceptions of the GPG; the findings were discussed in accordance with the present literature on the topic.
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Acknowledgements
This research was part of "Zero Gender Pay Gap Project - Gender e-quality: Innovative tool and awareness raising on GPG”. Project's leading body has been the Department of Psychology of Sapienza University of Rome and the partners have been: NACW (AT); 4 Elements (GR); Equanima (CZ); Gender Project for Bulgaria Foundation (BG); and Fondazione Risorsa Donna (IT).
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The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: this research was supported by EC – DG Justice.
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Lausi, G., Burrai, J., Barchielli, B. et al. Gender pay gap perception: a five-country European study. SN Soc Sci 1, 267 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00274-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00274-8