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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.

11 of 338 comments (clear)

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

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

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    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 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!

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

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

    4. 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.

    5. 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..

    6. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. "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..

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

    Female Uber Drivers EARN Less Than Men, Says Study

  5. 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.

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    "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco