Who gets Market Supplements? Gender Differences within a Large Canadian University

Abstract

This study examines the gender pay gap among university faculty by analyzing gender differences in one component of faculty members’ salaries – “market premiums.” The data were collected during the Fall of 2002 using a survey of faculty at a single Canadian research university. Correspondence analysis and logistic regression analysis were performed in order to identify the characteristics related to the award of market premiums and whether these characteristics account for gender differences. The correspondence analysis produces a two-factor solution in which the second axis clearly opposes faculty who receive market premiums to those who do not. Gender is strongly related to this factor, with the female category on the side of the axis associated with the absence of market premiums. The results of the logistic regression confirm that field of specialization, frequency of external research contracts, faculty members’ values and attitudes towards remuneration and seniority within rank are all related to the award of market premiums, as hypothesized. However, women were still almost three times less likely than men to have been awarded market premiums after controlling for these relationships. Overall, the results suggest that within a collective bargaining context, reindividualization of the pay determination process — notably, the payment of market premiums to faculty — may reopen pay differences by gender.