Gender, Race, and the New (Merit-Based) Employment Relationship

Recent research has focused attention on the ways institutions and work practices have transformed the employment relationship. While there has been growing interest in how key employer practices have changed the organization of work, the gender and racial implications of such practices remain less well understood. Using unique longitudinal personnel data from one large organization, this study takes a comprehensive sequential approach to identify at which stages of a widespread contemporary practicethe use of merit-based reward programs to evaluate and reward workersgender and racial disparities may exist. The analyses show that there are significant gender and racial differences at the performance evaluation, salary, and career setting stages, even after implementing these merit-based work practices. I conclude by discussing the implications for how and where current organizational practices and work arrangements may affect the careers of women and racial minorities in the contemporary workplace.