IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlabec/doi10.1086-715835.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why Do Women Earn Less than Men? Evidence from Bus and Train Operators

Author

Listed:
  • Valentin Bolotnyy
  • Natalia Emanuel

Abstract

Female workers earn $0.89 for each male-worker dollar even in a unionized workplace, where tasks, wages, and promotion schedules are identical for men and women by design. Using administrative time-card data on bus and train operators, we show that this earnings gap can be explained by female operators taking fewer hours of overtime and more hours of unpaid time off than male operators. Female operators, especially those with dependents, pursue schedule conventionality, predictability, and controllability more than male operators. While reducing schedule controllability can limit the earnings gap, it can also hurt female workers and their productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Valentin Bolotnyy & Natalia Emanuel, 2022. "Why Do Women Earn Less than Men? Evidence from Bus and Train Operators," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(2), pages 283-323.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/715835
    DOI: 10.1086/715835
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/715835
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/715835
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/715835?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Price, Brendan & Wasserman, Melanie, 2022. "The Summer Drop in Female Employment," CEPR Discussion Papers 17354, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Josep Amer-Mestre and Agnès Charpin, 2022. "Gender Differences in Early Occupational Choices: Evidence from Medical Specialty Selection," Economics Working Papers EUI ECO 2022/01, European University Institute.
    3. Maria Vittoria Corazza, 2024. "Flying High: Revealing the Sustainability Potential of Women in Aviation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-18, August.
    4. Cody Cook & Rebecca Diamond & Jonathan V Hall & John A List & Paul Oyer, 2021. "The Gender Earnings Gap in the Gig Economy: Evidence from over a Million Rideshare Drivers [Measuring the Gig Economy: Current Knowledge and Open Issues]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(5), pages 2210-2238.
    5. Viola Corradini & Lorenzo Lagos & Garima Sharma, 2022. "Collective Bargaining for Women: How Unions Can Create Female-Friendly Jobs," Working Papers 2022-005, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    6. Brunello, Giorgio & De Paola, Maria & Rocco, Lorenzo, 2023. "Pension Reforms, Longer Working Horizons and Absence from Work," IZA Discussion Papers 15871, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Adams-Prassl, Abigail, 2020. "The Gender Wage Gap on an Online Labour Market: The Cost of Interruptions," CEPR Discussion Papers 14294, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Chen, Yutong, 2024. "Does the gig economy discriminate against women? Evidence from physicians in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    9. Thomas Le Barbanchon & Roland Rathelot & Alexandra Roulet, 2021. "Gender Differences in Job Search: Trading off Commute against Wage," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(1), pages 381-426.
    10. Jakob Alfitian & Marvin Deversi & Dirk Sliwka, 2023. "Closing the Gender Gap in Salary Increases: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Promoting Pay Equity," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 244, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    11. Grissom, Jason A. & Timmer, Jennifer D. & Nelson, Jennifer L. & Blissett, Richard S.L., 2021. "Unequal pay for equal work? Unpacking the gender gap in principal compensation," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Elizabeth Lyons & Laurina Zhang, 2023. "Salary transparency and gender pay inequality: Evidence from Canadian universities," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(8), pages 2005-2034, August.
    13. Julian V Johnsen & Hyejin Ku & Kjell G Salvanes, 2024. "Competition and Career Advancement," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(5), pages 2954-2980.
    14. Lochner, Benjamin & Merkl, Christian, 2022. "Gender-specific application behavior, matching, and the residual gender earnings gap," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 04/2022, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    15. Alfitian, Jakob & Deversi, Marvin & Sliwka, Dirk, 2023. "Closing the Gender Gap in Salary Increases: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Promoting Pay Equity," IZA Discussion Papers 16278, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Seema Jayachandran & Lea Nassal & Matthew Notowidigdo & Marie Paul & Heather Sarsons, 2024. "Moving to Opportunity, Together," Working Papers 326, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    17. Hannah Illing & Hanna Schwank & Linh T. Tô, 2024. "Hiring and the Dynamics of the Gender Gap," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 339, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/715835. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JOLE .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.