Monday, May 09, 2005

Do Men Make More Money Than Women Because They Do More Dangerous Work?

Ampersand at Alas a Blog shoots down the myth that the wage gap between men and women is due to the "fact" that the wage gap reflects men getting paid more for hazardous jobs or dangerous jobs.

Quoting academic studies and the Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys, Amp concludes that:
The anti-feminist argument that the gender wage gap is (partly or fully) caused by justified higher pay for men who take on riskier work is not true. Evidence shows that taking on risky work isn’t associated with higher pay.

Second conclusion: The widely-shared conservative assumption that the market produces just and fair outcomes is not supported by looking at how the market compensates for risk. Workers who risk their lives often receive very low compensation, and for non-unionized workers they may be paid even less than similar workers in less risky jobs.
Interesing, go read it, as well as the comments.

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