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A preprint study on the link between scholarly performance and compensation finds that cumulative research productivity was more strongly related to compensation for men versus women—but only in STEM fields, not in the social and behavioral sciences. In STEM, women with the relatively high h-index productivity and citation measure of 49 were paid $6,000 less than their male counterparts at that level, for example. The authors, who studied 3,033 researchers from 17 research-intensive universities, recommend that institutions update their compensation formulas and perform routine pay-equity analyses.
Co-author Christiane Spitzmüller, vice provost for academic affairs and strategy at the University of California, Merced, told Science that existing research suggests that the h-index metric favors men in many ways, and that her own study therefore probably underestimates gendered differences in pay. “You probably have an even starker effect for women who … do more on dimensions that are not rewarded with a high h-index,” such as mentoring and other service work, she said.
