Gender Differences in Salaries: An Application to Academe

There is a lengthy body of literature investigating differences between male and female salaries in academe. Most of these studies have two common characteristics: they examine salary levels but not raises, and they lack information about research productivity. Because of that, they tell us much about the differences between male and female salary levels but little about salary increments for research production. Yet the allocation of raises is an important element in the study of gender differences in compensation. Even if males and females have equal starting salaries, raises which do not fully reflect productivity would soon lead to salary differentials. The purpose of this study is to fill this void by analyzing longitudinal data, including research output, from the University of Alabama for the years 1981-1985.'