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Pay Transparency and Gender Equality

Author

Listed:
  • Jack Blundell
  • Emma Duchini
  • Ştefania Simion
  • Arthur Turrell

Abstract

Since 2018, UK firms with at least 250 employees have been mandated to publicly disclose gender equality indicators. Exploiting variations in this mandate across firm size and time, we show that pay transparency closes 19 percent of the gender pay gap by reducing men's pay growth. By combining different sources of data, we also provide suggestive evidence that the public availability of the equality indicators enhances public scrutiny. In turn, employers more exposed to public scrutiny seem to reduce their gender pay gap the most.

Suggested Citation

  • Jack Blundell & Emma Duchini & Ştefania Simion & Arthur Turrell, 2025. "Pay Transparency and Gender Equality," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 17(2), pages 418-445, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:17:y:2025:i:2:p:418-45
    DOI: 10.1257/pol.20220766
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Adams-Prassl, Abi & Balgova, Maria & Qian, Matthias, 2020. "Flexible Work Arrangements in Low Wage Jobs: Evidence from Job Vacancy Data," IZA Discussion Papers 13691, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Huang, June & Lu, Shirley, 2025. "Gender diversity performance and voluntary disclosure: Mind the (gender pay) gap," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    3. Bramucci, Francesca & Boudet, Ana Maria Munoz & Viollaz, Mariana, 2025. "Promoting Women’s Leadership: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What’s Missing," IZA Discussion Papers 18221, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. John Forth & Nikolaos Theodoropoulos & Alex Bryson, 2023. "The role of the workplace in ethnic wage differentials," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(2), pages 259-290, June.
    5. Wolfgang Frimmel & Bernhard Schmidpeter & Rene Wiesinger & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2022. "Mandatory Wage Posting, Bargaining and the Gender Wage Gap," Economics working papers 2022-02, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    6. Gamage, Danula K. & Kavetsos, Georgios & Mallick, Sushanta & Sevilla, Almudena, 2020. "Pay Transparency Initiative and Gender Pay Gap: Evidence from Research-Intensive Universities in the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 13635, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Diego GentilePassaro & Fuhito Kojima & Bobak Pakzad-Hurson, 2023. "Equal Pay for Similar Work," Papers 2306.17111, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2025.
    8. Adams-Prassl, Abigail & Balgova, Maria & Qian, Matthias, 2020. "Flexible Work Arrangements in Low Wage Jobs: Evidence from Job Vacancy Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 15263, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Danula K. Gamage & Georgios Kavetsos & Sushanta Mallick & Almudena Sevilla, 2024. "Pay transparency intervention and the gender pay gap: Evidence from research‐intensive universities in the UK," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 62(2), pages 293-318, June.
    10. Andreas Gulyas & Sebastian Seitz & Sourav Sinha, 2023. "Does Pay Transparency Affect the Gender Wage Gap? Evidence from Austria," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 236-255, May.
    11. Bamieh, Omar & Ziegler, Lennart, 2022. "Can Wage Transparency Alleviate Gender Sorting in the Labor Market?," IZA Discussion Papers 15363, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Van Phan & Carl Singleton & Alex Bryson & John Forth & Felix Ritchie & Lucy Stokes & Damian Whittard, 2023. "Accounting for firms in gender-ethnicity wage gaps throughout the earnings distribution," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2023-16, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    13. Bohacek, Radim & Myck, Michal, 2025. "Economic Consequences of Political Persecution (updated research)," IZA Discussion Papers 18282, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Alex Bryson & John Forth & Lucy Stokes & Van Phan & Carl Singleton & Felix Ritchie & Damian Whittard, "undated". "Accounting for Firms in Ethnic Wage Gaps Across the Earnings Distribution," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 570, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    15. Melanie Jones & Ezgi Kaya, 2023. "The UK gender pay gap: Does firm size matter?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(359), pages 937-952, July.
    16. Jones, Melanie K. & Kaya, Ezgi, 2022. "Organisational Gender Pay Gaps in the UK: What Happened Post-transparency?," IZA Discussion Papers 15342, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance

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