The recent introduction of pay transparency laws marks a significant shift in the labor market, yet a notable gap in research remains in examining its effects. The current research seeks to address this gap and examine the gendered implications of pay range transparency policies. Drawing on research on gender sorting in the labor market, we propose that women show a greater preference for jobs with narrower (vs. wider) pay ranges compared to men, and that this preference is driven by women’s greater risk aversion tendencies. In addition, we propose the gender-based application sorting subsequently affects negotiation behavior, such that applicants to jobs with narrower (vs. wider) pay ranges (which are favored by women), exhibit less assertive negotiation behavior (e.g., asking for lower pay), thereby contributing to the perpetuation of gender pay disparities. We test these predictions in six studies, involving two online worker samples (N=2,077), a survey New York State residents (N=2,664), MBA students (N=276), undergraduate seniors (N=150), and a field experiment involving a real job posting (N=1,699).
