Douglas Todd: The puzzle of the high-end gender pay gap
Credit to Author: Douglas Todd| Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2020 23:11:39 +0000
Women now account for roughly six of 10 of those enrolled in higher education. In five decades, they’ve almost matched the number of men in the North American workplace. Each decade, the wage gap between women and men narrows.
But women’s successes aren’t showing up to the same extent in the highest-paying careers. The University of B.C.’s Nicole Fortin and colleagues have found just 17 per cent of Canada’s top one per cent of earners, those who make more than $230,000 annually, are female.
And a recent Vancouver Sun series on B.C.’s public-sector salaries discovered twice as many men as women earn more than $150,000 a year from taxpayers. Of the 50 highest paid public-sector workers in the province, those making more than $500,000, only 12 per cent are women.
Many continue to agonize over the gender pay gap, with former U.S. president Barack Obama among those who have said it’s “wrong.”
However, three distinguished female economists, including Fortin, believe the gulf at the top has less to do with overt discrimination and more to do with women’s decisions.
Harvard University economics professor Claudia Goldin.
Harvard University economics professor Claudia Goldin says it’s important to fight discriminatory employment practices. But she says they’re only a small part of the puzzle. “It is also true that the time demands of many jobs can explain much of the pay difference, a finding that has sobering implications.”
Goldin, who has devoted her career to gender issues, is among a growing number of economists who point out women tend to choose jobs with “temporal flexibility” — in large part because of parental responsibilities.
“The data shows that women disproportionately seek jobs — including full-time jobs — that are more likely to mesh with family responsibilities, which, for the most part, are still greater for women than for men,” says Goldin, noting women want jobs that offer the ability to adapt hours and rearrange shifts.
“Such jobs tend to be more predictable, with fewer on-call hours and less exposure to weekend and evening obligations. These advantages have a negative consequence: lower earnings per hour, even when the number of hours worked is the same,” Godin says.
“Is that unfair? Maybe. But it isn’t always an open-and-shut case. Companies point out that flexibility is often expensive.”
The overall pay gap in the U.S. currently has women making roughly 81 cents for every dollar earned by a man. In Canada the gender gap shrinks to 87 cents.
Nicole Fortin, professor of economics, UBC.
Like others, UBC’s Fortin has found that “the hindering role of family responsibilities” is the most significant factor in explaining the wage gap, especially among potential high earners.
Fortin also points out women predominate in sectors such as education, health care and the social services. It’s harder to jump into the top percentile of earners while in those fields than it is in engineering, technology and business, which attract more men.
Most parent couples make strategic decisions about how to divide up their responsibilities to maximize their finances and their child care. But cultural influences about males and females also shape their choices — and the pay gap.
The Pew Research Center reported in 2017 that the U.S. public still leans heavily on men to be the main breadwinners. “Americans say a man should be able to support a family financially, but don’t say the same about women,” says Pew.
Seventy-two per cent of U.S. women say it’s “very important” for a male to be able to support a family financially to be a good partner, while only 39 per cent of women say the same of a female. (U.S. males are even less likely to say female spouses need to be solid providers.)
Marianne Bertrand professor of economics,
In a January speech, a University of Chicago economist, Marianne Bertrand, said the birth of a first child has essentially no effect on a man’s earning trajectory. But a typical woman experiences a significant hit to her pay.
Decisions made around motherhood, said Bertrand, make up the largest contributor to the gender gap, especially among educated women in the highest-earning categories. When babies arrive, women are more likely than men to quit their jobs or switch to part-time work.
In France, Bertrand said, females’ parenting decisions explain 10 to 15 per cent of that country’s gender gap. American political scientist Anne-Marie Slaughter adds that wage differences between men and women dwindle to just five per cent for women who don’t have children.
It appears, instead of overt discrimination, the wage gap is largely socially determined, by the choices couples make, even in this age of gender equality. Many parents’ decisions flow from social biases, which are hard to mitigate. But not impossible.
Could more North Americans overcome their own judgment that women who put their careers before family should feel guilty? And could more people see men who sacrifice their careers to raise children, while their partners work, as manly?
Public policy might help change attitudes, but only to a point. UBC’s Fortin says pay equity schemes are not a panacea, but she speculates the top-end gender gap might shrink if more companies were transparent about which genders were paid what.
Chicago’s Bertrand says it can be dangerous to focus on maternity leave, since it could reinforce the cliché that women are the natural caregivers. Fortin and Bertrand favour freeing up both parents by offering generous support for child care, as in Sweden and Denmark.
However, Goldin has cautioned that moving to a more family-friendly nation does not necessarily eliminate the gap. Highly educated mothers still earn less in Nordic countries, even though these nations have bounteous family policies, including family-based incentives for dads to also take paid leaves.
It will be revealing to discover how motivated mothers and fathers are to overcoming gender roles. As Goldin says, “A man can certainly be the more flexible member of the household, though he typically is not. Such decisions need to be made couple by couple.”
Twitter: @douglastodd
The Pew Research Center found Americans still expect the male spouse to be the main breadwinner.