In the paper, Natalya and co-authors investigate whether CEO-to-average-employee pay ratios of S&P 1500 corporations are affected by CEO gender, race, and ethnicity. They hypothesize that female and minority CEOs ratios would be smaller, driven either by their greater commitment to equal pay or pay discrimination.

They used newly available data on pay ratios, collection of which was mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Interestingly, they find that the female CEOs are paid 22 to 28 percent more than their white male colleagues, while the pay ratios of minority CEOs are similar to the ratios of majority executives. While several explanations shed light into this finding, the authors conclude that the largest impact on the result was made by high demand for female and minority executives who are in short supply.