New research finds women show a stronger preference than men for job postings with narrower salary ranges.

In addition, women were less likely to assertively negotiate for more pay.

Adding context erased the gender gap in both application choices and negotiation behavior.

There are laws in 15 states and Washington, D.C., requiring employers to post salary ranges in job listings, and some employers post ranges voluntarily. The idea is simple: if workers can see the salary before applying, they are better positioned to negotiate, which can ultimately help narrow gender and racial pay gaps.

A new paper published in the Journal of Applied Psychology suggests that this policy’s good intentions may backfire, depending on the range of the published salary.

The research combined four separate studies: an analysis of nearly 10 million U.S. job postings, a study of undergraduates entering the job market, a field experiment with........

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