Why do lesbians get paid more?
December 28th, 2010 at 1:00 pm by David FarrarEric Crampton blogs:
Says BoingBoing:
“Lesbians make more money than straight women (And nobody really knows why)”Really? Nobody? I can think of a couple of explanations, pretty easily testable.
And Eric’s theories:
First, and most importantly, maternity risk. If an employer expects a lesbian employee to be less likely to take maternity leave, and if maternity leave imposes costs on an employer, then the employer will be more likely to hire and to promote the lesbian over the straight woman. What evidence do we have? Petit’s field experiment showing that maternity risk is responsible for a fair bit of women’s lower average salaries.
Certainly possible.
Second, testosterone and negotiation strategies. Women, on average, are less aggressive
in wage negotiations. If testosterone correlates with aggressiveness in salary negotiations, and some evidence suggests higher than average testosterone levels among lesbians as compared to heterosexual women (though that evidence is contested), then we’ve another candidate explanation.
I’d put money on the maternity risk variable. I’d only put money on the negotiations one at decent odds.
Funnily enough, my gut instinct is that a more aggressive negiotating stance would be the bigger contributor to the gap.
But really, if correcting for the observables reduces the wage gap between lesbians and heterosexual women from around 40% [the paper cites average hourly wages of $18.70 for lesbians and $13.34 for cohabiting non-lesbian females] to around 5%, odds are pretty high that there are a bunch of unobservables also correlated with job performance that aren’t captured in the wage regression.
That’s a pretty large pay gap.
Related posts:
- The lesbian pay gap
- Straights and Lesbians banned from Aussie gay bar
- Hulme, Parker not lesbians
- Striking because they’re paid too much
December 28th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
When they can play guitar like this one, they deserve more money-
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December 28th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Its going to be mainly maternity leave.
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December 28th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
My wife gets paid $19.50 per hr.
Mmmmmm…………..maybe she’s a closet lesbian!
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Where does Lesbia stand in the OECD relative to the rest of the cuntries in that orgasmisation?
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
I want compensation
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
So do I after being F##Ked over by the feminazi lesbos!
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Hmm – I had a look at the original Boing Boing article, and must say that I utterly disagree with some of the author (Maggie Koerth-Baker) premises.
Like this bit:
….”one theory centers around the idea that straight women expect to, eventually, be involved with a man. And they expect, just as reasonably, that that man will earn more than they do—and, thus, when it comes time to decide who will make career sacrifices, the women expect that they’ll be the ones to take that hit.”
Whilst my mother’s generation might have expected that their male partners would earn more than them, many women of my generation would expect nothing of the sort – and would certainly never be so silly as to expect a man to look after us. Sure, I meet a lot of men who earn more than me – but most of them are also significantly older (and one would expect them to earn more than me, simply on the basis of their greater experience).
It’d be very interesting to see a comparison of male and female salaries broken down by age groups – I think the disparity would be much greater amongst older generations.
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Was this is specific Industries such as carpet and rug cleaning?
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Perhaps they are overcompensated because it is the empoyer playing safe, rather than leave themselves open to claims of wrongdoing by militant politically active lesbian wimmins collectives.
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Another possible reason is that letsbefriends are more likely to be over-paid government hacks, wreckers and haters.
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Talented lady there, Red.
I think you’ve posted that before, Sonny. It’s a nice explanation and the one that was given (although in more depth) while I studied as well.
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Why do lesbians get paid more?
My theory is, everyone likes lesbians, except for a few right-wing Christians who mostly live in Utah and a few Muslims. Apart from that, they have no enemies. Straight guys like em, gay guys like em, straight girls like em, gay girls really like em. They have no enemies.
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
did the study split mummy lesbians and daddy lesbians?
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
“My theory is, everyone likes lesbians”
I do not mind the feminine ones but I have no time for husky voiced man hating dykes.
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
I’m a lesbian in a mans body and I get paid ok
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
“…I have no time for husky voiced man hating dykes.”
Are you a right-wing Christian who lives in Utah Chuck, or am I going to have to revise the estimate?
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Wrong on both counts Reid.
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Perhaps because they don’t feel obliged to play second fiddle to sometimes deluded male egos & get on with being properly selfish?
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Bugger. OK, are you a ginger?
(Please don’t be alarmed Chuck it’s just I have a standard questionnaire for these sorts of things…)
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
If great levels of testosterone was a factor, I would imagine greater career ambition and drive would be significant; after all, a cleaner can only negotiate a certain wage level regardless of negotiating ability.
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Lesbians do make some rather interesting movies.
Maybe the earnings from these was factored in when working out the comparison.
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
That’s ridiculous. Helen Clark makes more than lesbians for a start.
Vote:December 28th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
And Heather Simpson makes more than most stamp lickers.
Vote:December 30th, 2010 at 11:15 am
ok, so this lesbian is too busy on her shagging holiday to really contribute well other than to say that the maternity excuse doesn’t cut. On my road trip I’ve just visited a lesbian couple who are both enjoying maternity leave. and are both high earners.
The two main reasons in the country lesbians are better paid is as already pointed out, long term Govt department bludgers, and the other is that the rest have the mindset, mentality and cut throat work ethic of Cactus Kate. We support ourselves with out the aid of a male, and just go get what we want.
Such a damn shame Cactus isn’t gay, I know a few women who dribble over her madly, and would just love to get up close and personal!!!
Vote:December 30th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Thank you UnPC for that endorsement.
Although I have never quite got my mind around the appeal of it, I am extremely supportive of (pure, not the bi-sexual “weekend” sort of) lesbianism and wish that every woman who has ever looked twice at the same sort of men I have, to discover it immediately.
Vote:December 30th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
They do well in the carpet industry.
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