Work and Occupations

Research indicates men often receive greater merit rewards than women for the same performance. It is unclear, however, whether gender differences in merit rewards narrow with increasing firm tenure or whether gender differences in merit-rewards stay constant across employees' firm-internal career. Using longitudinal personnel records of a private U.S. employer (2005–2014), the author finds no evidence for declining gender effects on pay when employees stay longer, not even among nonprofessionals where performance is easier to assess. Results contradict information-based theories and speak to status characteristics theory. Moreover, gender disparities are significant only when supervisors have discretion over merit increases.

Underreward is associated with depression—but is that association contingent upon job authority and other forms of status in the work role? And, do these patterns differ for women and men? Analyses of a national sample of American workers reveal that underreward is more strongly associated with depression among women with higher levels of job authority compared to similarly situated men. The authors then demonstrate that this pattern is amplified when other status elements are considered: income, skill level, autonomy, and decision latitude. These patterns are observed net of a range of sociodemographic measures, work stressors, and workplace sex composition. The findings of this study provide new insights about the gendered ways that job authority and other forms of status shape the association between underreward and depression. In doing so, the authors speak to diverse theoretical traditions related to distributive justice and engage with key ideas of reward expectation states theory. The efforts of the authors dovetail with recent interest in the gendered implications of authority and status as well as their connections to psychological distress.

This study examines the transmission of work values from parents to children between mid-adolescence and early midlife. The authors propose that work-related values are transmitted from parents to children in two sequential and complementary processes stretched across adolescence and early adulthood. The first process of work value exposure and reception in the family context is captured by the socialization model. The second process is one of delayed value activation, long after initial socialization, when the young adult offspring engages with the demands and vicissitudes of their own emerging careers. The authors find evidence for family socialization in adolescence and also support for the delayed activation model during adulthood. Although parental values were measured more than two decades earlier, the authors find the strongest associations of parent and child values when the offspring were in their late 30s. In addition, parent–child value similarity is heightened when adult children navigate career uncertainty and change, consistent with a delayed activation process.