Loading...
Loading...
Of course, there's nothing that would prevent women from becoming outside window-washers, but there might be natural gender differences in preferences for work environments that would discourage most women from hanging off a rope 10 stories above the street. Perhaps men show greater tolerance than women for risky, physically demanding, dangerous work in extreme outdoor conditions, and women put a higher priority on office work environments that are low-risk, indoors, safe and pleasant. Higher (lower) risk = higher (lower) wages, ceteris paribus, and women on average may be perfectly willing to accept lower wages for lower risk jobs, which would contribute to the wage gap.
Here's BLS data showing that in 2009, 93% of all workplace fatalities were men, and here's data showing that 90% of all fatal motorcycle accidents in 2005 were men, so I don't think there's any question that men are significantly more risk-tolerant than women. Any empirical study of wage differences by gender should control for risk and the probability of work-related injury or fatality, which I don't think usually happens.
Loading...
Loading...
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
Join Now: Free!
Already a member?Sign in