Gender Wages

October 29, 2008

Forget economics; you can blame most of the wage discrepancy between men and women on how they view their roles at home. And while women across the board make less than men, a University of Florida study shows there’s a wage gap among men, too. Management researcher Timothy Judge says working women with a traditional view, where women take care of the home, make much less money than men.

Judge: “For couples who endorse egalitarianism where men and women’s roles are relatively equal, there’s a very small earnings gap. Men still make more than women, but it’s much smaller; it’s less than half as large as when their gender role attitudes are more traditional.”

Results show traditionally minded women make about 25% less than their male colleagues. Experts say as they grow up, women aren’t taught to push for pay raises and promotions the way men do.

Judge: “We see that generally people’s gender role attitudes are becoming less traditional over time for both men and women. But there’s still a lot of variability across couples and it’s not that traditional gender role attitudes are right or wrong. It’s just that couples should realize and educators should realize, when they are traditional, it exacerbates the gender wage gap.”

Researchers found a wage gap for men, too. Traditional men make on average more than eight thousand dollars a year more than men with a less conventional view.

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