Merit-Based Reward Systems and Gender Wage Inequality with Eunmi Mun

In this seminar, Professor Eunmi Mun of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will examine a central promise of merit-based reward systems: that tying pay more closely to performance should curb managers’ discretion and reduce gender wage inequality. She contrasts this optimistic view with a competing prediction—that “meritocratic” practices often fail to eliminate bias and can even widen disparities. Drawing on two empirical settings—approximately 400 large firms in Japan and 600 firms in South Korea, both of which have shifted away from long-standing seniority-based pay—she shows that gender pay inequality rose after the introduction of merit-based pay. She further demonstrates that the consequences are not uniform: effects vary across employee groups and depend on how performance pay is designed and implemented. The talk highlights why gender inequality can persist, and even intensify, amid changing employment relations and the rise of meritocracy. 

Eunmi Mun is an Associate Professor at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her research examines how workplace policies and employment practices shape gender inequality, with a focus on initiatives intended to reduce bias and enhance women’s opportunities and earning. She is currently conducting cross-national research on gender-egalitarian workplaces across 13 high-income countries.