Department of Psychology, Lander College, Flushing, New York, United States of America.
Department of Computer Science, Lander College, Flushing, New York, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Feb 21;15(2):e0229383. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229383. eCollection 2020.
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.
研究性别薪酬差距的学者很少能够同时解释导致这种差距的各种潜在机制。本研究利用在线微任务平台 CloudResearch，将雇主与从事研究相关任务的工人联系起来，考察在匿名性、相对同质化的工作和灵活性为特征的劳动力市场中，性别薪酬差异是否仍然存在。对于参与了近 500 万个任务的 22271 名 Mechanical Turk 工人，我们根据之前显示会导致男女薪酬差异的关键协变量来分析按性别划分的时薪收入。平均而言，女性的时薪比男性低 10.5%。导致性别薪酬差距的几个因素包括女性选择广告时薪较低的任务的倾向。本研究提供的证据表明，即使在控制了经验、教育和其他人力资本因素之后，即使在没有明显歧视、劳动隔离和工作安排缺乏灵活性的情况下，性别薪酬差距仍可能出现。研究结果强调了需要检查性别薪酬差距的其他可能原因。还讨论了在在线劳动力市场减少薪酬差距的潜在策略。
