The Effects of Employment Website on Success in Wage Negotiations

Research proposal: The Effects of Employment Website on Success in Wage Negotiations
Motivation
Years after desegregation in the Civil Rights Movement, the racial pay gap in the United States remains substantial. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (Semega et al., 2020), the real median household income of non-Hispanic White households is $76,057 in 2019, whereas this figure is $45,438 for Black households, $56,113 for Hispanic households, and $98,174 for Asian households (2020).
The differences in average pay among occupations and the lack of educational opportunities are not the only factors behind the pay discrepancy between whites and racial minorities. Among male college graduates with professional white-collar jobs, the median pay for White, Black, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander, and Asian is $71,500, $63,500, $66,600, $66,600, $69,400, and $84,000, respectively, controlling for years of experience and job types (Gruver, 2019).
Chronologically, several stages at work could contribute to the racial pay gap, such as wage negotiation at job entrance and asking for a promotion later in life. Scholars argue that the wage discrepancy racial minorities experience has already begun at job entrance because racial minorities negotiate for lower wages than whites (Seidel et al., 2000). Fortunately, social networks and friends who work at the employing company could offset this gap in wage negotiation. The mechanism of social networks on wage negotiation remains unclear, but scholars propose that the crucial yet often secretive information that social networks convey could be helpful during wage negotiations.
Even though social networks could resolve the wage discrepancy racial minorities experienced, not everyone is fortunate enough to have a friend at the employing company. Many people increasingly use employment websites such as Indeed.com and Glassdoor.com to find information about salaries of job positions of interest. In light of the wage discrepancy and the popularity of employment websites, it is worth researching the effectiveness of employment websites, in particular, whether employment websites alleviate the inequality in wage negotiation by providing information.
In the following paper, I will present a brief literature review on social networks and wage discrimination, followed by a detailed outline of my research question and hypotheses. Then, I will elaborate on my plan for data collection and data analysis. Finally, I will write about the expected findings and their significance to the broader literature.
Literature Review
Numerous studies have highlighted the importance of social networks in improving a candidate’s job prospects, including John Hopkins sociologist Mark Granovetter’s famous study paper “The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited.” In his research on how ideas and influence expand in social settings, Granovetter discovered that people, including hiring organizations, are more likely to be receptive toward those they are acquainted with. Workers tend to find jobs through formal sources and personal contacts, which he categorized into weak and strong ties. Weak ties refer to those acquaintances one is less likely to be socially involved with or w...