MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Getting the Short End of the Stick: Racial Bias in Salary Negotiations

Companies need to be aware of — and take action to mitigate — pay inequity in the hiring process.

Gender and racial inequality in pay is making headlines these days, and many companies are moving to eradicate it. One major and often unrecognized obstacle companies face is a less-than-robust understanding of the role of the salary negotiation process and the biases and behaviors of job seekers — as well as the people responsible for hiring them — in the problem. This may be a function of the taboos associated with offering prescriptive advice by gender and race. Nevertheless, decades of social psychological research demonstrate that these differences can play a key role in producing pay inequality.

About the Author

Morela Hernandez is an associate professor of business administration in the leadership and organizational behavior area at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. Derek R. Avery is senior associate dean of Diversity & Global Initiatives and Sisel Professor of Management at Wake Forest University School of Business.

Learn more about MIT SMR.