The persistence of pay inequality: The gender pay gap in an anonymous online labor market.

Leib Litman,Zohn Rosen,Jonathan Robinson,Lisa M Bates,Joshua Waxman,Cheskie Rosenzweig,Luís A Nunes Amaral

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0229383

Abstract

Studies of the gender pay gap are seldom able to simultaneously account for the range of alternative putative mechanisms underlying it. Using CloudResearch, an online microtask platform connecting employers to workers who perform research-related tasks, we examine whether gender pay discrepancies are still evident in a labor market characterized by anonymity, relatively homogeneous work, and flexibility. For 22,271 Mechanical Turk workers who participated in nearly 5 million tasks, we analyze hourly earnings by gender, controlling for key covariates which have been shown previously to lead to differential pay for men and women. On average, women’s hourly earnings were 10.5% lower than men’s. Several factors contributed to the gender pay gap, including the tendency for women to select tasks that have a lower advertised hourly pay. This study provides evidence that gender pay gaps can arise despite the absence of overt discrimination, labor segregation, and inflexible work arrangements, even after experience, education, and other human capital factors are controlled for. Findings highlight the need to examine other possible causes of the gender pay gap. Potential strategies for reducing the pay gap on online labor markets are also discussed.

Highlights

The gender pay gap, the disparity in earnings between male and female workers, has been the focus of empirical research in the US for decades, as well as legislative and executive action under the Obama administration [1, 2]
Model 1 shows the unadjusted regression model of gender differences in estimated actual pay, and indicates that, on average, tasks completed by women paid 60 (10.5%) cents less per hour compared to tasks completed by men (t = 17.4, p < .0001), with the mean estimated actual pay across genders being $5.70 per hour
In Model 2, adjusting for advertised hourly pay, the gender pay gap dropped to 46 cents indicating that 14 cents of the pay gap is attributable to gender differences in the selection of tasks (t = 8.6, p < .0001)

Summary

Introduction

The gender pay gap, the disparity in earnings between male and female workers, has been the focus of empirical research in the US for decades, as well as legislative and executive action under the Obama administration [1, 2]. Trends dating back to the 1960s show a long period in which women’s earnings were approximately 60% of their male counterparts, followed by increases in women’s earnings starting in the 1980s, which began to narrow, but not close, the gap which persists today [3]. More recent data from 2014 show that overall, the median weekly earnings of women working full time were 79–83% of what men earned [4,5,6,7,8,9].

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