Differences in Pay-Satisfaction Between Single and Cohabiting Women in the Netherlands, Moderated by Gender Norms

Abstract

One under-explored factor within women’s pay satisfaction is ‘cohabitation status’, referring to being single or in a cohabiting relationship. Existing literature suggests single women show relatively lower pay satisfaction compared to women in a cohabiting relationship. The social-ecological model is used as the theoretical framework in this research to study pay satisfaction in women from an interdisciplinary perspective. A moderator that might strengthen the relationship between pay satisfaction and cohabitation status, included in this research, is gender norms. Accordingly, the first research question is; “Is there a difference in pay satisfaction between women with different cohabitation statuses in the Netherlands?” and if so, the second research question is “Do gender norms strengthen the relation between pay satisfaction and cohabitation status for women in the Netherlands?”. Many relevant factors are correlated to cohabitation status and pay satisfaction. While women in relationships show on average a higher relative pay satisfaction when controlled for their income, the regression analysis with control variables do not show a significant effect of cohabitation status on pay satisfaction. Gender norms did significantly effect this relationship, meaning women in a cohabiting relationship are more influenced by gender norms, compared to single women. To conclude, only one of the two main hypotheses could be fully confirmed. Further research is needed to explain how gender norms influence pay satisfaction and why women in a relationship show relatively higher pay satisfaction compared to single women.