{"id":13395,"date":"2022-12-01T00:20:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T08:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/?p=13395"},"modified":"2026-02-19T17:58:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:58:24","slug":"gs-raina-phd-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/2022\/12\/01\/gs-raina-phd-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Gurdeep Singh Raina: Reducing Gender Pay Gaps among Top Managers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Gurdeep
Gurdeep Singh Raina<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Reducing the pay gap between top male and female managers could be as straightforward as adding more women to a company\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When women make up about 15 percent of the board members, the gender pay gap narrows, according to research by Gurdeep Singh Raina<\/a>, a doctoral student at the WSU Carson College of Business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lone woman in a group of men may hesitate to speak up,\u201d he said. But when at least two women sit on a 10-member board of directors, they are more likely to voice their views, influencing company policies on issues such as executive pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey feel safer being vocal when their viewpoint differs from the majority, because they might assume the other women will back them,\u201d said Raina, who is studying management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raina analyzed data from 2,658 publicly traded US companies between 2005 and 2018, looking at board composition by gender and compensation packages for top managers. The research focused on C-suite level executives who report directly to the CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having a female CEO was also an influencing factor in pay parity. When companies had both a female CEO and multiple women on the board, gender pay gaps among top managers decreased to almost zero, according to Raina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe the same principles are at work,\u201d he said. \u201cFemale board members might think \u2018The chief executive is a woman. She\u2019s likely to support us on pay parity for top managers.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gender pay gaps vary by industry, but they\u2019re widely acknowledged in the business world. While researchers have studied the issue, most of the analysis has focused on pay for female CEOs and rank-and-file women employees, Raina said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides broadening the understanding of gender pay gaps in upper management, Raina said his dissertation research is a topic of personal interest. He worked in manufacturing and business consulting in India, China, and Hong Kong before he started his doctoral studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI worked in male-dominated industries, and I often wondered why there wasn\u2019t more female leadership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raina\u2019s research placed second in the college\u2019s Three-Minute Thesis competition last spring, where doctoral students give brief overviews of their research. He also has presented his findings at several academic conferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research has broad significance for organizations\u2014not only for companies, but also for government entities and nonprofits, says Arvin Sahaym<\/a>, Raina\u2019s dissertation advisor and a professor in the Department of Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bringing diverse ideas into an organization requires more than having a token woman or person of color on the board of directors, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to think proactively about diversity, equity, and inclusion. That includes addressing what prevents people from bringing their unique viewpoints to the table,\u201d Sahaym said. \u201cHaving that diversity of ideas helps organizations deliver the best results.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching and community service<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Besides his research, Raina has earned recognition at WSU for his classroom teaching skills and community service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raina\u2019s industry background helps him connect with students, said Ron Moser<\/a>, scholarly associate professor in the Department of Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe has a strong executive presence,\u201d Moser said. \u201cWhen he was my teaching assistant, I quickly realized that instead of an assistant, I really had a trusted business partner. That\u2019s how we\u2019ve treated our relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moser also recruited Raina to work with him on WSU\u2019s 2025 strategic plan, a university wide effort to strengthen WSU\u2019s role a as a public research university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Raina spent two years as senator for the WSU Graduate and Professional Student Association<\/a> (GPSA) and is a past president of the WSU Indian Students Association. He\u2019s an advisor to WSU\u2019s Sikh Students Association and an outside advisor to the board of Spectrum Institute, a nonprofit advocating for adults with mental and developmental disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last spring, Raina received the GPSA\u2019s service award, recognizing contributions to the WSU community and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s heavily invested in all things Coug,\u201d Moser said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reducing the pay gap between top male and female managers could be as straightforward as adding more women to a company\u2019s board of directors, according to research by Gurdeep Singh Raina, a Carson College doctoral student.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":[634],"featured_media":18187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[612,425,550],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13395"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18652,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13395\/revisions\/18652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13395"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author?post=13395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}