The Gender Pay Gap Part 2: How Do We Fix The Gender Pay Gap?

The two biggest factors for the opportunity gap are industry selection and hours worked

In the last video, I mentioned that there were two big factors that account for the differences in median wages between men and women. These two factors include differences in industry selection and differences in number of hours worked per week. In this video, we’ll dive deep into these two factors, and As we go over each factor, think to yourself whether this is a result of a sexist culture that unfairly disadvantages women or whether this is simply an amalgamation of individual choices that have led to disproportionate outcomes among individuals. Hopefully, you don’t use the following analysis as simply a way to confirm your existing bias, let’s instead give ourselves two sides to think about. I’m Kristine and this is the think report.

OK, so the first factor is

1. INDUSTRY OR OCCUPATION SELECTION

   It is a fact that women disproportionately select careers in lower-paying industries- health and education, for example, while men select careers in higher-paying industries- STEM fields, for example. Obviously, this isn’t universally true, but just to give you some #s: women outnumber men in education 3:1, and only make up only 13% of licensed engineers.

   1. Why would this contribute to a wage gap? Careers in health and education are publicly funded, which means they are covered by taxpayers. I have heard the argument that these jobs are undervalued and deserve to be paid more. Really? Should education workers be paid more? As a taxpayer, what would you like to give up for that to happen? Meanwhile, careers in technology are highly scalable, startups going public, innovating in a capitalist society, and so they of course have the potential for larger incomes. In addition, education is not a risky career choice- you are paid reasonably, given benefits, and have excellent job security. On the other hand, the tech industry comes with risks. Do you want to make it big? OK, start your own company, invest your life savings, move to the big city, and so on. Greater risk, greater potential for reward.

   2. Why does this factor exist? Why are men and women choosing different industries disproportionately? Why do more women choose education? Does making a difference matter more to women? Probably not. What about being around young people? Apparently so. The younger the children are, the fewer the men you see in education. In fact, only 2% of early childhood educators (preschool and kindergarten) are men. What about summers off? Appeal more so to women? Apparently so again and this may be for a few reasons. Yes, mothers bear the brunt of childcare, and so having summers off may be appealing to them moreso than fathers, which is possibly culturally engraved in their minds. But also, women tend to value their leisure time more positively on average. And finally, are there cultural influences at play? Are parents telling their sons not to become teachers but instead pursue engineering? Are parents telling their daughters not to pursue computer science and instead to pursue healthcare? Maybe yes. Think about your own parents. If you’re a woman, what would your parents have said if you wanted to pursue mining, or be an electrical technician? If you’re a man, what would your parents have said if you wanted to start your own daycare practice, or become a dental hygienist? You see, some cultures have defined gender norms that are passed down from generation to generation. Cultures with clear gender norms are also more likely to value competitiveness and financial success. According to cultural researcher, Geert Hofstede, this cultural likelihood is measured along a scale of “masculinity vs femininity”. Masculine cultures, such as Mexico and Japan have stricter gender norms and define success as winning. Feminine cultures such as Sweden and Iceland, on the other hand, have fluid gender norms and define success as having a good quality of life and enjoying what you do. So how do Canada and US rank? Somewhere in the middle- moderately masculine. But, here’s an interesting observation. The top countries that Canada and the US saw immigration from in 2021 include Mexico, China, the Philippines, and Nigeria- all four of which have relatively higher masculinity scores. Now I’m not casting judgment on which is better masculine or feminine, but if you’re fighting for a more equality-valuing, feminine society, how do we reconcile this with adding more masculine cultures to our melting pot? And all the while standing against assimilation of any kind. Do you see the issue? It seems as though there are two competing priorities. Am I the only one who is noticing this?

   So to summarize the first factor, women are choosing careers in less paid industries. Perhaps these choices are culturally influenced- but everything you do is culturally influenced- the coffee you drank this morning, whether or not you spoke to your parents this week, the way you discipline your children- all of this is culturally influenced. But, ladies if you want to be a millionaire by the age of 40, don’t pursue a career in dental hygiene or childcare. And if you want to be a dental hygienist or a childcare provider, that’s ok too, and you should enjoy the quality of life that you get from pursuing what you love.

2. WORKING HOURS

   It is a fact that women work fewer hours than men on average. By approximately 5 hours per week. Two parts to this. First, women are more likely than men to have part-time positions. Second, even when in full-time positions, they work fewer hours than male counterparts.

   One can obviously see why # of hours worked would result in an ANNUAL salary gap, but why would # of hours worked contribute to an hourly pay gap? Working longer hours usually signifies to superiors a stronger work ethic and deeper commitment to organizational goals, and this is more likely to result in perceived better performance, pay raises, and promotion opportunities. Now, this may be the fundamental attribution error bias at play here. Of course just because someone is working longer at YOUR company doesn’t mean they’re better performers in general. Obviously, people have a variety of responsibilities that they’re tending to, which could cause them to put less face time in at the office. But working shorter hours can also result in a slower career progression for pragmatic reasons. One simply doesn’t accumulate the same level of experience when they’re only in the office 3-4 days per week.

   Why is this happening? Why are women working fewer hours? Well, there are the more obvious reasons. When a couple chooses to have children, someone with a uterus has to carry the child. This comes with doctor’s appointments, hormonal changes, and physical/mental health risks- all potentially needing time off. When the child is born, someone needs to care for the baby. In Canada, there are generous parental leave benefits, some of which are targeted to fathers. But, stay-at-home dads represent only 15% of all stay-at-home parents. Why are women choosing to stay home with their babies instead of the dads? Well first, there are incentives to stay home- thanks to the generous maternity leave benefits. Second, there is an obvious biological component? Women may need time to heal from the ever-increasing likelihood that they’ll have a C-section and may elect to breastfeed her baby. In addition, usually, later on in life, it is true that women take on the majority of caring hours for their growing children, take on caring for elderly relatives, and do more of the other unpaid but important tasks such as housework and family calendar organization. And Let’s just be clear here- women are not biologically better at cleaning! However, we need to understand the importance of comparative advantage. If we specialize in tasks, it allows the tasks to be done better and more efficiently. This is of course how gender norms came to be. You take care of the kids and I’ll go build a fire. Or you can go build the fire and I’ll take care of the kids. But, we shouldn’t both do both- bc nothing will get done properly. I’m not sure the decision to specialize in a certain domain of household tasks is a bad thing, unless of course, it becomes less about personal choice and more about subjugation. Here’s something else I found that’s interesting though. It’s also true that women aged 18-25, well before the average age to get married and have children these days, also work shorter hours. A recent study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that while young men seem to have more leisure time on average per day, they enjoy this leisure time less. Women have a more favourable enjoyment view of their leisure time, which may sway their career decisions to valuing fewer work hours.

   So to summarize the second factor, women are working fewer hours than men, which leads to lower annual salaries, but also lower per hour wages. There are biological and cultural influences at play that influence why women are more likely to stay home with their children but there are also personal preferences for more leisure hours as well. And while this creates inequalities in # of hours worked, it could just be intelligent decision-making to lead happier lives overall.

OK so we analyzed the two key factors that have resulted in the median hourly wage gap. But, still a 2% gap or more remains. One potential reason for this could be personality differences between men and women. Are women asking for raises less? Are men more assertive in climbing the corporate ladders? Sheryl Sandberg famously insisted in her book Lean In that women sit at the table. In other words, ask for what you want and get yourself into important conversations. Then her ideas were quickly dismantled by many prominent journalists as well as Michelle Obama. Another possible reason for this ongoing 2% is overt sexist discrimination. There may still be men in positions of power who don’t think that a woman would be up for a manager job. It’s more likely, however, that men in positions of power are falling prey to a “similar to me” bias where they believe the best candidate for an executive role is someone like them- a man. This sexist discrimination, whether overt or accidental, should be corrected and begs the need for further awareness in this area.

What do you guys think? Are there policies that are meant to bridge the gap, but actually result in problematic outcomes for women? When the US and Canadian governments suggest a new childcare policy to be rolled out in the coming years, what are the benefits and unintended consequences that may arise as a result? If the median gap is 15% and the controlled true pay gap is 2%, when should we be satisfied? Must it be 0 and 0? What would that world look like? Would you rather live in that world? Share with me your thoughts and we’ll continue the conversation. Thanks for thinking with me. Until next time.

References

https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/JGEEQ3Q9RTWM6SF4KWEA/full

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/12/fathers-day-facts/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6678233/

https://www.immigration.ca/where-will-canadas-401000-immigrants-come-from-in-2021

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-women-jobs-idUSKBN2AW19Y

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/statistics-canada-gender-pay-gap-1.4014954

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410006401

CNBC

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/30/1-in-4-women-are-thinking-about-altering-their-careers-due-to-covid-19.html

ABC https://abcnews.go.com/Business/women-leaving-workforce-downshifting-careers-covid-19-report/story?id=73310740

https://www.nbcnews.com/know-your-value/feature/lost-jobs-less-pay-no-childcare-year-pandemic-women-are-ncna1259267

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/03/us/jobs-women-dropping-out-workforce-wage-gap-gender.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/working-moms-covid-pandemic-jobs/2020/10/29/e76a5ee0-0ef5-11eb-8a35-237ef1eb2ef7_story.html