Job Characteristics and Labor Market Discrimination in Promotions

We extend promotion signaling theory to generate new testable implications concerning racial differences in promotions. In our model, promotions signal worker ability. When tasks differ substantially across job levels, the opportunity cost of not promoting qualified nonwhites/non-Asians is large, so employers are less likely to inefficiently withhold their promotions. Thus, given pre-promotion performance, the extent to which nonwhites/non-Asians have lower promotion probabilities decreases when tasks vary more across levels. Racial differences in wage increases at promotion diminish when tasks vary more across levels. Evidence from a single firm’s personnel records supports the model’s predictions concerning promotion probabilities