Gender differences in pay histories and views on pay entitlement among university students

Experimental research with college students has shown that women report lower entitlement to pay than men for the same tasks and conditions. Gender differences in past socialization, which have resulted in different social psychological orientations by gender are the commonly offered explanations for this pattern of results. We examine the possibility that gender differences in recent pay experience influence entitlement views by providing different standards for female and male students' judgments of their entitlements. Through a survey of female and male undergraduates in psychology courses labour 95% were Caucasians), we assessed respondents' incomes and perceptions of deserved income, for past and current work, and expectations and entitlements for future wages after graduation. Before controls, women reported deserving significantly less than did men for jobs last summer and for future jobs. Women also had earned less than men from jobs last summer. Few students were currently working during the school year and there were nor significant gender differences in income fr om current work. After controls for level of earnings from the job held last summer there was no longer a statistically significant gender difference in perceived entitlement. The gender gap in pay that is so pervasive among working adults also extends to the experiences of women and men in their college years who have not yet entered full-time, full-year work, and this gap is related to gender differences in perceptions of pay entitlement, Alternative interpretations are discussed.