Growing scholarship examines the conditions under which transparency initiatives lead to more equitable outcomes in organizational settings. Yet, less is known about whether such initiatives may help to resolve salary gaps when co-located workers have different employers (such as in the widespread case of salary gaps between direct employees and contract workers employed in the same job and worksite). To address this, we study the impact of a mandated economy-wide transparency initiative within the H-1B visa program, revealing immigrant workers’ status as direct employees or contractors, in conjunction with salary. Drawing on theories related to coordination challenges, employment externalization, and the boundary of the firm, our findings indicate that in the year after the transparency initiative, the salary gap was reduced for immigrants working in the same job and worksite, but this effect is most pronounced at those worksites where employers engaged a single active contracting firm. The initiative had less of a salary impact at worksites with 2-4 contracting firms, and virtually no impact in worksites with 5 or more contracting firms. This pattern of results suggests that cross-firm coordination challenges may have blunted the initiative’s impact. Findings emphasize the complexity of achieving equitable salary outcomes in multi-employer worksites.
