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Race-based Shifting Standards and Financial Compensation in the Workplace
Watkins, Emily C. Jones, Zaria D. Weeks, Kelly P.
Watkins, Emily C.
Jones, Zaria D.
Weeks, Kelly P.
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URCAS, Student research, 2018 Spring, Class of 2018, Business, Department of, Class of 2019, Psychology, Department of
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Abstract
The present study examines the relationship between race and financial compensation within the workplace. Specifically, this study uses the Shifting Standards Model (SSM), which says that people are influenced by stereotypes when making judgments, as a framework to describe why
raise amounts for two identical employees might differ based on race. In SSM, the influence of
the stereotype is visible on an objective scale but hidden on a subjective scale. Participants are
asked to think of themselves as a Human Resource Manager giving an employee a raise. Based
on objective information that is given about the employee, who is either White or Black, the
participant will be asked to give a raise in an objective, dollar amount. Then, the participant rates
how large that raise is on a subjective scale. The SSM predicts that the Black employee will be
given a smaller raise, which would then be rated as subjectively equal, or possibly better, than
the higher objective raise the White employee is given. Preliminary data analysis indicates
results in line with the predicted pattern, where the Black employee receives a smaller objective
raise than the comparably described White employee, even as their raises are described as
subjectively the same.
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Presentation by Emily Watkins ('18), Zaria Jones ('19), Matthew Weeks (Department of Psychology), and Kelly Weeks (Department of Business) delivered at the Rhodes College Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Symposium (URCAS).