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Even On eBay, Women Get Paid Less For Their Labor (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: Women in the United States are paid only 79 cents on the dollar compared with men doing the same job. But at least gender melts away in the digital economy of the Internet, right? Nope. A study of more than 1 million auctions on the online commerce site eBay finds that women receive consistently less money than men for selling the very same products. T: The oft-cited "cents on the dollar" claims, though, ought perhaps be taken with a grain of salt; it depends who's counting, and what.

19 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. New Owner by Daimanta · · Score: 2, Insightful

    New owner, same third wave feminist bull.

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  2. Obviously by penguinoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Obviously, people check the gender of the merchant before buying from them.

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    1. Re:Obviously by TWX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I can't even think of a way to check the gender of the merchant.

      When I buy something on eBay I'm looking at item condition, item price, shipping price, sometimes originating location, and if there are any glaring negative reviews of the seller. I can't think of any circumstances in which I've not made a purchase based on the seller's username.

      I don't see how women are making less than men on eBay transactions specifically because of gender.

      --
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    2. Re:Obviously by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So, women are paying women less for items? Wow, do we need a whole new ism for that? ;)

      There is nothing new about this 'ism. Talk to any female manager, and most of them will tell you they have more problems with female subordinates than with male subordinates. If you want to see some real conflict, assign a young woman to manage older women. Groups of men/boys will naturally form hierarchies, and they don't have too much trouble fitting a woman into that system. Women/girls naturally form smaller non-hierarchical egalitarian groups, and they tend to resist any alpha-female trying to dominate.

    3. Re:Obviously by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, who wants the drama? I don't care if you're a woman, but I do care if you feel the need to tell me. Nothing good can come of that. Same with homosexuals, heterosexuals, religious people, atheists, vegans, etc.

    4. Re:Obviously by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The funny thing is that all the "crying from the rooftop" bullshit is here on Slashdot, not in the study. The study is an attempt to get some hard data that can help us understand the issue.

      The worst part is that you can never win with the anti-feminists. When data is presented it's misandry, when it's pointed out that women are part of the problem too it's misogyny as well. This is science, it doesn't take a position. I hate that Slashdot has become so anti-science.

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  3. Why are we not done with this SJW tripe? by sinij · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why are we not done with this SJW tripe?

    1. Re:Why are we not done with this SJW tripe? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why are we not done with this SJW tripe?

      Because it is Friday.

  4. uhh maybe they're pricing their goods lower? by ThorGod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For one, how do you know the sex of an ebay seller?

    For two, are we sure it's a significant difference?

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  5. Re:Vote Hillary Clinton! Women Unite!! by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hillary pays her male staff more than her female staff. Or does hypocrisy count?

    From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

    Looking at median salaries among full-time, year-round employees, the Free Beacon concluded that women working in Clinton’s Senate office were paid 72 cents for each dollar paid to men.

    I am sure that you'll be happy to make excuses or quote methodology (as did HuffPo), but when you're UNWILLING to do the same for studies you agree with then that too is Hypocrisy.

    The fact is, if women were a better value at 72 Cents on the dollar, any business would be foolish to hire men.

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  6. Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let me try and understand this - are they suggesting that bidders go 'Gosh, that stuff is being sold by ILIKEPINKKITTENS who is probably female so therefore I'll bid less as I'm a pig and hate women'?

    Reads article: Hmmm, apparently they're not sure why, but think it's something to do with how men and women describe things.

    Damn those Mansellers and their unfair use of words.

  7. This would need a controlled test by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just looking at raw ebay data doesn't cut it. You would need a controlled test using the exact same product description, the exact same seller feedback for both the man and woman sellers, exact same reserve price, etc. with the only difference being the name of the seller (male or female sounding).

    Otherwise the discrepancy could just be something as simple as a difference in how men and women describe their product.

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  8. I read the TFA by Harlequin80 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The summary doesn't really reflect the articles findings. Yes female identified sellers received less money that sellers identified as male but once it was corrected for various things the difference was down to 97c per dollar. So the difference is no where near the level the summary, or even the opening part of the article claims.

    There are also huge windows of error in their statistical sampling. They analysed 1.1m records but only had 400 sellers names assessed for expected gender. From those 35% couldn't be guessed an 9% got it wrong. So to apply that level of inaccuracy and then claim 3% as a significant difference is a bit of a stretch.

  9. Re:"Labor" != "Sales" by Your.Master · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't see the margin of error cited.

    For used items, it was within 3%. For new items, it was 20% on apples-to-apples item comparisons -- same as the purported wage gap. Even on gift cards, which have a real exact value.

    Their first guess was that it came down to men describing things in a better light, and they do, but not by enough to really move the numbers, so that's not it. Nobody knows more specifically why this would happen, when raw capitalism suggests you would bid up the cheaper thing that women were selling.

    There, I summarized the article because you clicked through and still didn't read it.

  10. "79 cents" ...but not "for the same job." by cirby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All of those surveys they keep touting do NOT compare same (or even similar) jobs and experience. They usually compare anything BUT the same job, with the same hours. Sure, the headlines claim that, but when you look at the surveys, it's just not true.

    When they do get around to comparing similar jobs, women get the same pay (or even slightly more), right up until they start having children. Then, they either leave the job market completely (not as common nowadays) or work fewer hours. I have never worked at any place where the women generally worked more hours than the men. I've worked a lot at places where the men worked many, many more hours than the women.

    Here's the kicker: if women really were paid 20% less for the same work, who would hire men? Any company that hired only women at that rate would have a huge price differential over their competitors.

  11. Re:Vote Hillary Clinton! Women Unite!! by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And your point would be?

    if women were a better value at 72 Cents on the dollar, any business would be foolish to hire men

    I am pretty sure my point was clear. Capitalism doesn't care if you're man or woman, gay or straight, black or white, KKK or BLM. It only cares what your value is. It is the ONLY true colorblind system in the world.

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    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  12. God damn it. by ArylAkamov · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not this tired old meme again.

    They don't get paid less for "The same job", they get paid less because they take different jobs and, on average, work less hours than men.

    It's like people forgot about the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

    But hey, controversy sells and gets ad revenue. It doesn't matter if it's true or not.

  13. Re:Vote Hillary Clinton! Women Unite!! by Qzukk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Capitalism doesn't care if you're man or woman, gay or straight, black or white, KKK or BLM. It only cares what your value is. It is the ONLY true colorblind system in the world.

    Now if only we could find rational actors to implement it.

    --
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  14. Re:Vote Hillary Clinton! Women Unite!! by Firethorn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... And your point would be?

    Let's say that theoretical female and male employees are theoretically identical except for the flag "F" or "M". Let's also treat them as an asset. Like, say, a Bolt. Said Bolts, from company "M" has a "M" embossed on the top. From company "F", it has a "F". The bolts are identical otherwise, delivered at the same cost, speed, etc...

    Bolts from M cost $1 each. Bolts from F cost $0.72. If I'm a business, I'd be an idiot to buy Bolt M, bolt F is substantially cheaper. I can offer cheaper products buying from F. Under such a scenario, as a business I'd buy bolt F exclusively if possible. But F can't produce enough, so they're only meeting half of my demand. I'd offer F, say, $0.75 per bolt to ensure my supply. Problem, next thing I know, F has raised their prices, and I'm paying $0.85, and M is offering a sale at $0.85 so it can sell bolts as well.

    The conclusion, as an amateur economist, but decent at math and science, is that if M can stay in business at $1 and F still has excess production capacity at $1 each, is that the "M" and "F" aren't actually identical. Maybe bolt F is just as strong as M mechanically, but what if M is stainless and F isn't? Then M will be used exclusively in various tasks - exterior applications, corrosive environments, etc...

    Same deal with male and female employees. If the $0.72 cents is hanging around, maybe it's because there actually ARE differences, and businesses aren't actually, on average, paying men more for no good reason. Identifying what those reasons could be is the real trick.

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