Two tests of direct gender bias in job evaluation ratings

The study reported here investigated the effects of gender‐linked job title, percentage of female job incumbents, and inclusion/exclusion of current pay information on job evaluation scores. One hundred and sixty‐eight upper division business students rated five jobs on the five compensable factors of a job evaluation system used by a department of the Canadian government. Job title was manipulated by changing ‘special assistant‐accounting’ on one job description to ‘senior secretary‐accounting’ the stated number of male and female job incumbents was also altered experimentally on that job description. The results indicated that subjects assigned significantly lower job evaluation ratings to the manipulated job description with the female‐stereotyped title than the same description with the more gender‐neutral title. However, the stated percentage of women in the job did not appear to influence ratings on the manipulated job. Knowledge of current pay rates among the five jobs did not moderate the other effects. Implications of these findings for pay equity (comparable worth) are discussed.