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Female Uber Drivers Get Paid Less Than Men, Says Study (recode.net)

Posted by BeauHD on from the pay-discrimination dept.

According to a new study by Uber and Stanford economists, male Uber drivers get paid 7 percent more than their female counterparts in the U.S. "That's surprising, because Uber's driver assignments and pay are gender-blind, meaning a driver's gender isn't considered when matching riders or assigning fares," reports Recode. "Rather, pay has to do with trip length, distance and whether it's happening during surge-price hours or not." From the report: There are more male drivers -- women make up 27 percent of Uber drivers in the U.S. -- and male drivers tend to work longer hours. However, on an hourly rate, women still make less, according to the data, which measured trips by 1.8 million drivers from 2015 to 2017. According to the study, discrimination on the customer side isn't the reason for the pay gap, either. So why are female Uber drivers paid less than men? The study points to three reasons that make the gap disappear:

When and where: The times and places female Uber drivers work seem to be less profitable. That could be fewer overnight shifts, shifts with shorter wait times or surge-price shifts than men.
Driver experience: Drivers who've been with Uber longer get paid more, on account of knowing which routes and times tend to pay more. In general, men work for Uber longer than women so they are more experienced. The attrition rate after six months is 77 percent for women and 65 percent for men.
Speed: Male Uber drivers conduct more trips per hour than women, meaning they're actually driving faster, according to the data. More trips mean more money. About 50 percent of the earnings gap is explained away by differences in driving speed.

44 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. Shocking. by poptix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Turns out the wage gap really is simply because of personal choices.

    --
    Just because you disagree doesn't mean it's not true.
    1. Re: Shocking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Equal pay for eeual work. Sums it up nicely.

    2. Re:Shocking. by aussiekrom · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Beyond being able to state that fact, it also allows anyone who wants to earn more see specifically what factors they might be able to change to do so.

    3. Re:Shocking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Turns out the wage gap really is simply because of personal choices.

      In other news, the leading cause of poverty (that is, people who *become* poor) is getting knocked up at a young age and having a bunch of children you cannot afford instead of completing your education and establishing a career.

      Yet if you dare suggest things like delayed gratification, birth control, the fact that we all know where babies come from ... well it's amazing how people will villify you for that. Even people who did it that way themselves!

    4. Re:Shocking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Turns out, women aren't fucking stupid enough to drive for Uber.

    5. Re:Shocking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They're also not stupid enough to climb 1500ft radio towers, drive garbage trucks, weld, mine, work in construction, or many other low-skill/high risk jobs that pay well.

      Hmmmmmmm...

    6. Re:Shocking. by cayenne8 · · Score: 2

      Funny, when I read that I infer self preservation, by avoiding the type of life threatening or permanently traumatizing situations that are more likely to happen at night (e.g., drunk male passengers). That's a dramatically different situation from actual personal choice.

      It's the old Risk vs Rewards decision tree we've seen before for age in almost any endeavor to make money.

      It certainly is all about choice here, much as it is in some form or fashion any time you want to make more money.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    7. Re:Shocking. by david_thornley · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The next step is to investigate those personal choices. Why are women not taking the more profitable shifts? Why are they dropping out as drivers more than men? Why are we rewarding people for speeding? This just kicks the can a way down the road, rather than explaining everything.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    8. Re:Shocking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      male

      Ah ha! There it is. Thank you so much; the blame has been properly assigned. Good work, comrade.

      Now on to solutions. Ultimately, we'll need to rid ourselves of these males, but that's going to take another generation or two. In the mean time we should supply female Uber drivers with an armed officer, and tax men to fund it.

    9. Re:Shocking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In your troll universe, parents who already have careers never get laid off and lose their income.

      For one who so quickly calls "troll!" you sure do seem to have difficulty with reading comprehension. Assuming your "misunderstanding" was not intentional, of course.

      You see, getting laid off, otherwise losing a job/career, becoming disabled, etc. are also counted when causes of poverty are studied. Believe it or not, they're not in the same category as "oops, I'm still in my teens and got knocked up!" Yes, a minority of the time people become poor through no fault of their own, but that's not what "leading cause" means. This is easy to understand, except of course that failing to understand it gives you something to rail against. That's what matters, right?

      Sorry, this is not the easy slam-dunk victory you seem to have wanted. You are not the clever guy who noticed what others have overlooked all along. Shockingly, not everyone who disagrees with you is stupid. Care to argue with facts and reason? If you were raised by a single mother or something like that, you should admit you have a personal bias here. That would demonstrate integrity, emotional maturity, and the ability to be objective.

    10. Re:Shocking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Last I checked, all the people born that I know about had two parents, one male and one female. This suggests that it isn't just the woman who's making that choice.

      Female selection is seen all throught nature, including in humans. The female generally has more power in a relationship. She generally decides when they have sex, and a host of other important decisions. Did you ever meet a woman who was deathly afraid that her man might "put her in the doghouse"? Didn't think so. If the woman wants to abort the baby, the man legally has no say at all in the matter. If she wants to have it, same deal. Men have exactly one effective form of non-permanent birth control while women have about a dozen. This is not a level playing field. How can you pretend that it is?!

      With greater power comes greater responsibility. Of course the male bears some responsibility. The law recognizes that in the only way that it can, by making him pay child support. But the female has more power in this situation. It is therefore resonable to expect her to bear a bit more responsibility. If the roles were reversed you'd have no problem accepting this, likely because the "woman as victim" narrative is still quite prevalent (makes you feel "noble" like a White Knight) no matter how strong the evidence against it is.

    11. Re:Shocking. by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 4, Funny

      Turns out the wage gap really is simply because of personal choices.

      You are obviously mistaken. What's happening here is that the statistics are obviously sexist, and probably misogynistic as well. I'm sure if I could be bothered to RTFA it would also become apparent that the statistics are not only racist but homophobic too. I even heard from a friend, who's sisters ex-boyfriend's third cousin's step daughter said that these very same statistics are part of a neo-Nazi group and abuses puppies on Thursdays.

    12. Re:Shocking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I submit that "whiteness" is cultural, and that anyone can become "white". Here are a few simple rules to do this: a) When in Rome, do as the Romans do. b) While in Rome, do not find fault with the Romans. c) Remember that anyone, by following the above rules, can become a Roman. Indeed, if you can understand how Romans act, and act that way yourself, you are perceived by the Romans as one of them -- or, at the very least, an ally. You will find that Romans reward those who are their allies, and prefer to do business with other Romans. And, since most people with money in Rome are Romans, it does one best to cultivate their company.

      If you constantly find fault with the Romans, you are not one of them, and they will close ranks in both subtle and overt ways against you. You will find that Romans do not want to do business with you, and anything you want to do which needs Roman help becomes harder.

      Indeed, what has happened to the Africans -- the most notable of the not-Romans? They have been bought off by rich Romans -- been thrown a few slices of bread and been given a few circuses -- so that they can feel like they have accomplished something, while their schools are deliberately given undereducated teachers who look like them to prevent upward mobility, and their children are convinced that single parenthood is liberating -- exactly the opposite of what is needed in Roman society to excel.

      A few escape that trap and become Romans -- only to be told by their peers that being Roman is something ugly which severs them forever from non-Roman Africans. Indeed, those who fight to become Romans are beset both by those rich Romans who do not want them, and by their own people, who do not realize that it might do them far better if they were to achieve true Roman citizenship. And yet, many manage; if their children can ignore the besmirchment of their parent by non-Romans, they are easily set up to be Romans too.

      To understand this, just watch TV.

    13. Re:Shocking. by grasshoppa · · Score: 2

      Actually, by law, it is ( at least in the united states ). Men have *NO* procreation rights, women are free to get abortions.

      Of course, if you meant that they have a choice whether to have sex or not, sure; that much is true. However, women then have a superset of rights compared to men whether to have a child or not.

      See correction.

      --
      Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
    14. Re:Shocking. by Wycliffe · · Score: 4, Interesting

      In your troll universe, parents who already have careers never get laid off and lose their income.

      Parents who already have degrees and careers tend to be able to recover quicker. The #1 reason for extreme poverty is out of wedlock children and having children young. That being said, there is likely some selection bias there. Many people who plan on going to college intentionally hold off on having children where people who have no plans to go to college have less incentive to wait to have children. Sure there are other reasons for poverty like health problems, etc... but that doesn't negate the fact that the #1 preventable way of staying out of poverty is delaying children until you are stable.

    15. Re:Shocking. by yuriklastalov · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's not just the statistics which are bigoted. It turns out that all math and science are White Supremacist, so pretty much everything just needs to be destroyed so we can have our perfectly Diverse Utopia.

    16. Re:Shocking. by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The only gap there is what women *earn* not pay. If women go out and decide to work at a mine as a digger, they're going to be paid $20/hr just the same as a man. The man on the otherhand will be more likely to take that extra 20hrs/week in OT, and she is not. If a woman goes out and becomes a truck driver, she's going to make that same $0.60-0.70/mile plus dock-in/downtime repairs. But she's also not going to take higher stress routes through the NE corridor which have bonus rate pay because city/traffic volume. Where as a man will, repeatedly because it pushes his per/mile payout over $1.08/hr. But according to you and the author of that article, she's being *paid* less in both cases.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    17. Re:Shocking. by aphelion_rock · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They get paid the same, it is just that men prefer to work longer hours, take on riskier jobs and probably take less breaks/ spend less time chatting than women..

    18. Re:Shocking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, and importantly we can do without Slashdot's click bait like headline.

      The headline should have read 'female uber drivers earn less than men'.

    19. Re:Shocking. by ckatko · · Score: 4, Informative

      The personal choices are already known.

      Women choose quality of life, over raw income. That's because only the male's income (as a number) is a signal of worth, whereas women don't have that requirement. Any man, will date any woman, no matter how crappy her job is. And women choose happiness over shitty hours. So men work more crap shifts to get more money... to demonstrate their value to society and potential mates.

      And this isn't some new theory. It's been settled in the scientific community forever.

    20. Re: Shocking. by PaulRivers10 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I've been saying this forever. How many guys do you know move in with their girlfriend and live off her paying the rent? How many guys do you know have their girlfriend frequently pay for their meals? How many girls are mocked by guys because they still live at home? Not a lot. You know why? Because don't NEED to do the extra work to make more money like men do. Women earn less money because they can. Because they have a backup plan that involves a guy paying for their stuff. Feminism is about sacrificing women's happiness for more profits. That's why it hates families, sabotages relationships, promotes promiscous sex while fearing emotionally bonding sex. Because by taking away options from women, it forces women to make more sacrifices for money. If women are miserable it doesn't care, as long as women are more profitable.

    21. Re: Shocking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Contraceptives for men:
      1) abstinence (arguably)
      2) condoms
      3) pornhub et. al.

      To help facilitate 1), consider trying:
      a) getting an engineering or, even better, CS degree
      b) reading slashdot
      c) APK's hosts file

    22. Re:Shocking. by mjwx · · Score: 3, Informative

      Turns out the wage gap really is simply because of personal choices.

      In other news, the leading cause of poverty (that is, people who *become* poor) is getting knocked up at a young age and having a bunch of children you cannot afford instead of completing your education and establishing a career.

      Yet if you dare suggest things like delayed gratification, birth control, the fact that we all know where babies come from ... well it's amazing how people will villify you for that. Even people who did it that way themselves!

      I agree with your point about life choices... but the leading cause of poverty is still being born into poverty. A young girl from Bello, Colombia isn't going to magically elevate herself out of that place because she resists having a kid, it still takes money to go to school, money her family is short of.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    23. Re:Shocking. by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 2

      This suggests that it isn't just the woman who's making that choice.

      This is demonstrably false.

      • Men and women make the choice to have sex.
      • Women have the choice to use the pill, IUDs, sponges, condoms, etc. or refuse to have sex with the man.
      • If a woman gets pregnant, she has the choice to have an abortion and the man has zero say in the matter. If he wants the baby, he can't stop her from having an abortion. If he doesn't want the baby, he can't make her have an abortion.
      • If she doesn't put a name for the father on the birth certificate, she can choose to keep it or put it up for adoption and the man has no say.
      • If she keeps the baby, she can then sue for paternity and he will be required to pay child support, even if he didn't want the baby and he may be denied contact with the child. The man has no say.
      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    24. Re:Shocking. by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 2

      Would you advocate giving men rights over the unborn child, and if so what rights and how would they be balanced against the rights of the mother to control her body?

      How about if women are able to unilaterally decide to abort their unborn children, men can unilaterally decide to cede their paternity & be off the hook for child support?

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    25. Re:Shocking. by grasshoppa · · Score: 2

      I'm a fan of fiscal abortion being available to both parties, but more than that I advocate for women to be required to legally inform the father of any pending birth so that he might make an informed decision about his role as a father.

      Note: I reserve the right for the woman to be the sole decision maker when it comes to getting an abortion. Biology isn't fair, and I respect that's a decision that should be left to the woman. However, after that I want men to have control over their own legal and fiscal destiny. Effectively the same rights that women now enjoy.

      --
      Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
    26. Re:Shocking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes; it's why there are so many battered women's shelters around.

      Given the lack of men's shelters and the fact that actual rates of DV are about even across genders, I don't think this makes the point you think it does.

    27. Re: Shocking. by dcw3 · · Score: 2

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    28. Re:Shocking. by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 2

      The problem with the "male abortion" is that it give the man a very easy way out of their responsibilities. It's generally recognized that for most woman an abortion is no small matter or easy decision, but it's considerably easier for the man to just sign the paper and leave the mother to figure out what she is going to do.

      Legally, a man can't stop a woman from having an abortion, and he can't force her to have one either. If women get a choice, then so should men. Your perception about the difficulty of those decisions shouldn't have any bearing.

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    29. Re: Shocking. by MisterFnortner · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Equal pay for equal work is utopian nonsense since there is no way to a) gauge work effort, and b) work is an input not an output. Better: equal pay for equal value. Most employers understand this implicitly. Case in point, women Uber drivers 'work' their auto and their calls just like men, but don't make as much per hour. They are not doing the valuable work that men are.

    30. Re:Shocking. by SunTzuWarmaster · · Score: 2

      Here are some interesting facts for you:
      https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat...

      13% of mining industry is female.
      9% of the construction industry is female.
      7% of leatherworkers are female.
      9% of sewage treatment facility operators are female.
      7% of industrial maintainers are female.

      had to dig a little deeper to find welders/brazers:
      https://www.bls.gov/cps/wlftab...
      4% of the welders are female.

      Approximately TWO percentage of the carpentry field is female (https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm). You could host all ~30K of them in a conference center.

      However...
      27% of computer programmers are female.

      But it seems to be one long non-stop onslaught of "women in tech, women in STEM, female programmers, female venture capitalists."

    31. Re: Shocking. by kenh · · Score: 2

      A woman that learns how to provoke a man into hitting her - possibly even by hitting the man first - will invariably 'win' in the both the court of public approval AND the court of law.

      It's not fair, but it is the truth - there is no defense in any but the most extreme and well-documented cases for striking a woman.

      --
      Ken
  2. Are we different by Doub · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow, it turns out women and men are different. Are we on the verge of finding a way to tell a man from a woman?

  3. feminists BTFO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So in a completely gender blind pay scheme, women still manage to make less then men?
    Can all of you please shut the fuck up about the pay gap now?
    It's clear that any remaining difference is caused by women themselves.

    1. Re:feminists BTFO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So in a completely gender blind pay scheme, women still manage to make less then men?
      Can all of you please shut the fuck up about the pay gap now?
      It's clear that any remaining difference is caused by women themselves.

      And here's the real take-away from that: since the differences are caused by women themselves, trying to artificially change them would be a total failure to treat women as equals by respecting their decisions!

      They're either equals who get to make their choices and experience the consequences just like men do, or they're delicate flowers who need to be protected from themselves. Can't have this one both ways (though a great effort is put towards trying and failing).

  4. "Get paid less" vs. "earn less" by katz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Glancing quickly at the headline, "Even female Uber drivers get paid less", one may get the impression that women drivers are discriminated against. The article could have gone with "Even female Uber drivers earn less than male drivers", but that phrase doesn't carry the same biting edge, does it..

  5. fixed that for you... by SchroedingersCat · · Score: 5, Informative

    Female Uber Drivers EARN Less Than Men, Says Study

  6. Re:Women aren't aggressive by cayenne8 · · Score: 2

    Well... if they're aware their service is encouraging breaking of public road safety regulations... yeah, they should put a soft speed cap on, perhaps by fining drivers who exceed the limits.

    Oh come on...

    I don't know where you live, but where I live and have lived, if you're going the speed limit, you're in serious jeopardy of getting run over by every other driver on the road.

    No one goes the posted speed limits here....I guess, except a few female uber drivers I guess. I'm guessing those are the ones everyone is honking and and getting pissed off about?

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  7. Re:Women aren't aggressive by stoborrobots · · Score: 5, Informative

    The relevant numbers are an average of 19.5 miles per hour for men in Chicago, vs 18.8 for women in Chicago.

    --
    "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
  8. Re:Women aren't aggressive by Baron_Yam · · Score: 2

    In my area, the only people who go under the limit are in that age range where a doctor should be checking to see if they're still able to safely operate a vehicle. (And man, do I wish the Grim Reaper upon them frequently since one of my common driving routes passes by a retirement community...) In my experience, the only way for men to drive faster than women is for the men to be speeding.

    Statistically, men tend to be riskier drivers (which I'm willing to attribute to testosterone, the cause of and solution to all men's problems!). We have the big accidents that kill people. Women have a lot more of the fender-bender type, likely because they're still over represented in the 'running errands all day' category. Take those 'facts' with a grain of salt, as it's been a while since I've read up on the subject and things may have changed or I may be recalling incorrectly.

  9. Correction to the clickbait title by bjdevil66 · · Score: 2

    Female Uber Drivers Get Paid Less Than Men - Mostly Because They Drive Slower

    Men drive faster and get more fares in over the same timeframe, making roughly 3.5% more cash. (The other 3.5% is postulated to be a combination of more work experience due to higher female job attrition, and women working at less profitable times.)

    It has nothing to do with a battle of the sexes going on - no matter how inflammatory it can be for some to speculate about.

  10. Re:A Problem by grasshoppa · · Score: 2

    Equality does not mean "equal outcomes", it means "equal opportunities". Results should never be taken as confirmation of bias, but rather as a starting point to ask "Why?".

    This situation is a great bite-sized example of the wage gap, which itself is explained largely through personal choice.

    --
    Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
  11. Misleading title by goranb · · Score: 2

    They get payed the same, but choose to work less...

  12. Re:Girly dollars by Cederic · · Score: 2

    Ok, but make one man tax dollar equal to three girl tax dollars to even up that disparity too.

    I'd seriously support that.