How Unpredictable Schedules Widen the Gender Pay Gap
Many factors contribute to a substantial gender pay gap in the U.S. But what about environments in which compensation structures are seemingly completely objective and bias-free? The authors analyzed seven years of pay data for bus and train operators employed by the MBTA at union-negotiated rates and found that even among people in exactly the same role at the same seniority level, women still took home 11% less than men. They identified three factors driving this persistent earnings gap: unpredictable, unconventional, and uncontrollable schedules. Since women tend to have more inflexible commitments outside of work (such as elder care and childcare), they generally end up taking home less pay when shifts are scheduled last-minute, at non-standard hours, or via a system that doesn’t give workers control over their assignments. Moreover, the authors found that these scheduling practices ended up harming the MBTA’s performance metrics as well, leading to more canceled bus and train routes. To address these issues, the authors recommend that employers should endeavor to offer more-predictable schedules and build in redundancies so that workers aren’t asked to work last-minute or at unconventional times.
Continued here
