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> Even when mothers cut back at work, they are not paid proportionately less. When their pay is calculated on an hourly basis, they are still paid less than men

> Even when mothers cut back at work, they are not paid proportionately less. When their pay is calculated on an hourly basis, they are still paid less than men for the hours they work, Ms. Goldin has shown in previous work. Employers, especially for jobs that require a college degree, pay people disproportionately more for working long hours and disproportionately less for working flexibly. Time spent at work is traded off against free time. Your first hour of free time in a day is worth more to you than your 20th hour of free time in a day. So on average, people are going to need to be paid disproportionately more to do work more in a given day, on a marginal basis: the marginal value of free time increases as you have less of it. This has nothing to do with the sex of the worker, although if women and men value free time differently one would expect that to be reflected in overall compensation.

TearsInTheRain 9y ago
It seems weird to me that eliminating the "gender pay gap" is something businesses need to be actively concerned about. As long as they are offer equal pay for equal work they should be largely agnostic to the lifestyles choices of their employees
- mercer 9y ago
  You're right, and that's exactly why we have these discussions, push for legislation, put (social) pressure on businesses, etc. The problem I see is that businesses are not agnostic to the lifestyle choices of their employees. Rather, they're antagonistic to them. If not for our collective efforts, I'm sure a business would happily force people to work over the weekend for a pittance, break down the work/leisure barrier even more, and possibly have us sign away the right to our souls and bodies upon employment.
  - carsongross 9y ago
    The problem I see is that businesses are not agnostic to the lifestyle choices of their employees. The parent comment said: "As long as they are offer equal pay for equal work they should be largely agnostic to the lifestyles choices of their employees" But that's the rub: in many jobs you can actually accomplish more by working long hours, and often those are exactly the jobs that carry prestige and high salaries (banking, surgery, etc.) So employers can't be agnostic with respect to that particular lifestyle choice and still offer equal pay for equal work. If women are trading off work hours for free time, what people are really asking for is increased pay for women and decreased pay for men, based on faulty understanding of the marginal value of free time.
  - adrienne 9y ago
    They used to do that. You know what stopped them? Unions. Now everyone on HN denigrates unions every chance they get, because "unions impede productivity" or whatever. It's like how we have a large population of antivaxxers because basically no one younger than 80 has actually seen someone in an iron lung, or met a rubella baby.

TearsInTheRain 9y ago

It seems weird to me that eliminating the "gender pay gap" is something businesses need to be actively concerned about. As long as they are offer equal pay for equal work they should be largely agnostic to the lifestyles choices of their employees

mercer 9y ago
You're right, and that's exactly why we have these discussions, push for legislation, put (social) pressure on businesses, etc. The problem I see is that businesses are not agnostic to the lifestyle choices of their employees. Rather, they're antagonistic to them. If not for our collective efforts, I'm sure a business would happily force people to work over the weekend for a pittance, break down the work/leisure barrier even more, and possibly have us sign away the right to our souls and bodies upon employment.
- carsongross 9y ago
  The problem I see is that businesses are not agnostic to the lifestyle choices of their employees. The parent comment said: "As long as they are offer equal pay for equal work they should be largely agnostic to the lifestyles choices of their employees" But that's the rub: in many jobs you can actually accomplish more by working long hours, and often those are exactly the jobs that carry prestige and high salaries (banking, surgery, etc.) So employers can't be agnostic with respect to that particular lifestyle choice and still offer equal pay for equal work. If women are trading off work hours for free time, what people are really asking for is increased pay for women and decreased pay for men, based on faulty understanding of the marginal value of free time.
- adrienne 9y ago
  They used to do that. You know what stopped them? Unions. Now everyone on HN denigrates unions every chance they get, because "unions impede productivity" or whatever. It's like how we have a large population of antivaxxers because basically no one younger than 80 has actually seen someone in an iron lung, or met a rubella baby.