Preferences for Wage Discrimination against Women
This study demonstrates systematic bias against women in public perceptions of the fairness of wages. In nationally representative survey experiments across more than 70,000 individual vignettes posed to 4,500 respondents in three Central Asian countries, respondents were 13 percent more likely to say wages were “too high” when the randomly assigned person described in the vignette (subject) was a woman, and 34 percent more likely to say they were “too low” when the subject was a man. The pattern of bias favoring higher wages for men is statistically significant at conventional levels in all three countries, among both male and female respondents, and in each of the eight occupations studied. The results also demonstrate the presence of significant bias in favor or older workers, specifically for white-collar occupations, and the absence of this relationship for the blue-collar occupations included in the experiment. The findings reinforce the importance of bias as a contributing factor to the gender pay gap, and the value of equal pay regulations to prevent gender discrimination in wage setting.
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| Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2023-08-23
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| Subjects: | DISCRIMINATION, GENDER EQUALITY, GENDER WAGE GAP, EQUAL PAY, SYSTEMATIC GENDER BIAS, AGE BIAS, |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099516508212338351/IDU09d447bcd0cbd8041bd0982f0cdfa3ba4cf4f https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/40256 |
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| Summary: | This study demonstrates systematic
bias against women in public perceptions of the fairness of
wages. In nationally representative survey experiments
across more than 70,000 individual vignettes posed to 4,500
respondents in three Central Asian countries, respondents
were 13 percent more likely to say wages were “too high”
when the randomly assigned person described in the vignette
(subject) was a woman, and 34 percent more likely to say
they were “too low” when the subject was a man. The pattern
of bias favoring higher wages for men is statistically
significant at conventional levels in all three countries,
among both male and female respondents, and in each of the
eight occupations studied. The results also demonstrate the
presence of significant bias in favor or older workers,
specifically for white-collar occupations, and the absence
of this relationship for the blue-collar occupations
included in the experiment. The findings reinforce the
importance of bias as a contributing factor to the gender
pay gap, and the value of equal pay regulations to prevent
gender discrimination in wage setting. |
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