Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been harshly criticized for his remarks that women should trust in the system to give them the right raises as they go along, rather than asking for raises they feel they deserve.  While he later “clarified” his statement on Twitter saying that he meant to say that the tech industry must close the gender pay gap so asking for a raise is not needed, research shows why sociologists are skeptical of his arguments.

The gender pay gap is well documented, and it exists even when controlling for a variety of factors related to wages, such as occupation, work hours, and educational attainment.

• Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn. 2006. “The U.S. Gender Pay Gap in the 1990s: Slowing Convergence.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 60(1):45–66.
• Youngjoo Cha and Kim A. Weeden. 2014. “Overwork and the Slow Convergence in the Gender Gap in Wages.” American Sociological Review 79(3):457–84.

Occupations with lots of female employees also tend to be paid less favorably than those requiring similar skills but largely done by men.

• Hadas Mandel. 2013. “Up the Down Staircase: Women’s Upward Mobility and the Wage Penalty for Occupational Feminization, 1970-2007.” Social Forces 91(4):1183–1207.

Mothers tend to be particularly disadvantaged in terms of salary compared to childless women or to men.

• Michelle J. Budig and Paula England. 2001. “The Wage Penalty for Motherhood.” American Sociological Review 66(2):204–25.

Women can also face penalties for asking for a raise, even if they deserve it, if they don’t frame their request in a way that still conforms to gender norms.

• Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever. 2003. Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.
• Carol T. Kulik and Mara Olekalns. 2012. “Negotiating the Gender Divide Lessons From the Negotiation and Organizational Behavior Literatures.” Journal of Management 38(4):1387–1415.

For more on women in the workforce, check out these previous TROT posts and briefs from SSN.