Cambridge Business Association
An Economist Explains: Why Women Get Paid Less
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An Economist Explains: Why Women Get Paid Less

Laura Tyson
World Economic Forum, 2019
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Controversial
  • Analytical
  • Overview

Recommendation

When an emotional, controversial topic has weighty influence on people’s lives, it can become a breeding grounds for bias, prejudice, skewed statistics and quibbling over facts. At the confluence of gender issues, money and work, the gender pay gap is one such issue. Regardless of where you stand on the gender pay gap divide, you’ll find some evidence here to support your point in this World Economic Forum video featuring Laura Tyson, an economist at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Summary

Worldwide, a woman earns 54 cents for every $1 a man earns, on average. When companies – at the behest of investors, employees and governments – examined their wage scales to search for evidence of the gender pay gap, many found evidence of discrimination whereby male workers earned more than female workers with equivalent experience, education level and job title at the same company. But biased practices are responsible for only part of the pay disparity. Four trends account for the remainder:

  1. “Women choose different jobs – and those jobs pay less” – Globally, women veer toward lower paying jobs ...

About the Speaker

Economist Laura Tyson is a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

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