Performance pay, competitiveness, and the gender wage gap: Evidence from the United States

•We examine the receipt of different types of performance pay in the United States.•Women are slightly less likely than men to receive competitive compensation.•This gender difference explains a small amount of the gender wage gap.

We show that women in the NLSY79 and NLSY97 are less likely than men to receive competitive compensation. The portion of the gender wage gap explained by compensation schemes is small in the NLSY79 but somewhat larger in the NLSY97.