The purpose of this study was to apply human capital theory to the project management profession and associated gender wage gaps across the globe. We used salary survey data from the Project Management Institute and multi-national pay data to investigate the relationships among human capital variables, national policy, salaries, and gender wage gaps. The results showed the project management profession consistently has a narrower gender wage gap than the national gender wage gaps. Using ANOVA and mediation models, we showed that the project management gender wage gap can be reduced in the presence of national anti-discriminatory laws and national human capital development – both of which raise women's salaries to reduce the gender wage gap among project managers in Westernized countries. However, the human capital theory did not apply to the gender wage gap among project managers in Non-western contexts. Other recommendations to reduce gender wage gaps include national and organizational policies such as prohibiting discrimination against women in hiring practices, skills training, career development, and educational opportunities. We concluded there is still more work to be done to achieve equal pay between men and women, even in the project management profession and especially in Non-western contexts.

这项研究的目的是将人力资本理论应用于项目管理行业以及相关的全球性别工资差距。我们使用了来自项目管理研究所的薪水调查数据和跨国薪水数据来调查人力资本变量，国家政策，薪水和性别工资差距之间的关系。结果表明，项目管理专业的性别工资差距始终比全国性别工资差距窄。通过使用方差分析和中介模型，我们表明，在国家反歧视法律和国家人力资本发展的情况下，可以减少项目管理中的性别工资差距，这两者均提高了女性的工资水平，从而减少了西化项目经理之间的性别工资差距国家。然而，人力资本理论不适用于非西方环境下项目经理之间的性别工资差距。减少性别工资差距的其他建议包括国家和组织政策，例如在雇用实践，技能培训，职业发展和教育机会中禁止歧视妇女。我们得出结论，即使在项目管理行业，尤其​​是在非西方国家，要实现男女同工同酬，还有更多工作要做。