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A new study has found that men with traditional views of gender roles earn nearly $12,000 more than men and with egalitarian attitudes – and nearly $15,000 more than women.  The study held constant factors like hours worked, industry, and job complexity, knocking down previous theories on pay disparity which argue that men earn more than women due to their choice of occupations and work hours. 

The study, which appears in the September issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, is based on information collected by the Labor Department's National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a survey which began tracking 12,000 people in 1979 when they were 14 to 22 years old.  Over the 25-year study, the participants were asked numerous questions about their views of gender roles, as well as job and salary information.  Survey participants are now 43 to 51 years old.

Of course mainstream media ran full-throttle with the “sexism pays” message while ignoring the significant finding that over time, the majority of participants became less traditional in their views, and men’s views softened most of all.

The study does not come to conclusion on why men with more traditional values earn so much more than others.  But given that most people’s views became less traditional over the 25-year study, it could well-be that the higher salaries for sexists is based on a personality difference (ok, disorder) in that it clearly takes a certain inflexibility to be unwilling to modify one’s point of view even as the rest of society is changing around you.  In salary negotiations, more flexible individuals may tend to compromise sooner to end an uncomfortable situation, while inflexible people may be more likely to hold out longer, ultimately leading to a higher negotiated salary as the company becomes the one to compromise sooner.  Beth Livingston, the study’s co-author, cited the possibility of a “Donald Trumpian” personality at work.

The study also found that more educated men tended to be more accepting of equality in gender roles, while the less educated clung to the sexist view.  So they have more money, but aren’t as bright.  In all seriousness, study co-author Beth Livingston told me that while conducting her press tour, Fox News ran out of time before she could get to that point.  Sounds like rich republicans in a nutshell – in fact Donald Trump just endorsed McCain.

The short message for women:  Salary negotiations are uncomfortable, and as someone who has hired hundreds of people, I’ve personally seen women compromise (or cave) pretty quickly.  While they may counter a salary offer, they usually just ask for a small percentage increase from whatever number was offered.  I call this “bottom’s up” negotiating, and it automatically will lead to a lower salary because the starting point is of course going to be the low-end of the company’s range for the position.  If someone says “yes” to lower offer, whose fault is that?

The short message for hiring managers:  Those that are inflexible in salary negotiations may be just as inflexible in their world views, which should raise questions about their leadership qualities.  While we tend to think “wow, this guy must be great” simply because he shows such confidence in negotiations by playing hard to get, you could just be hiring a jerk instead.  More formal study is needed to know for sure.  Or you can ask a VP of Human Resources who’s been around for awhile.

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