https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/bolot ... dergap.pdf
Why Do Women Earn Less Than Men?
Evidence from Bus and Train Operators∗
Valentin Bolotnyy† Natalia Emanuel‡
WORKING PAPER
November 28th, 2018
Even in a unionized environment where work tasks are similar, hourly wages are identical, and tenure dictates promotions, female workers earn $0.89 on the male-worker dollar (weekly earnings). We use confidential administrative data on bus and train operators from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to show that the weekly earnings gap can be explained by the workplace choices that women and men make.
weekly earnings gap can be explained by the workplace choices that women and men make. Women value
time away from work and flexibility more than men, taking more unpaid time off
The evidence we have seen so far on the earnings gap in our setting suggests that insufficient flexibility and high female values of time outside the workplace are its root causes. This leads us to a number of testable hypotheses:
1. Women value time away from work more than men
2. Women take more overtime when it is scheduled in advance than when it is unscheduled
or offered at the last-minute
3. Women with dependents value time away from work and flexibility more than men with
dependents
4. Women try to avoid work more than men during times when values of time outside the
workplace are especially high
5. Women value preferable schedules over other workplace amenities
6. When faced with having to work an unfavorable schedule, women are more likely than men to choose unpaid leave instead
The gap of $0.89 in our setting, can be explained entirely by the fact that, while having the same choice sets in the workplace, women and men make different choices.
Women take more unpaid time off than men and they work fewer overtime hours at 1.5 times the wage rate. At the root of these different choices is the fact that women value time and flexibility more than men. Men and women choose to work similar hours of overtime when it is scheduled a quarter in advance, but men work nearly twice as many overtime hours than women when they are scheduled the day before.
