Gender Pay Gap Analysis: An Uber Case Study - ECON 1001A, Fall 2018

This essay reviews the Freakonomics podcast on what Uber can teach us about the gender pay gap. It summarizes the research question, methodology, and key findings, including the observation that a gender earnings gap exists among Uber drivers. The gap is attributed to factors such as experience, preferred driving locations and times, and driving speed. Men tend to drive more often, in more lucrative locations, and at higher speeds, leading to higher earnings. While women receive more tips, their overall earnings are lower due to these other factors. The essay concludes by noting that flexible work options are particularly desirable for women, and that the gender pay gap in the gig economy is influenced by a combination of driver experience, location and timing of work, and work habits. Desklib provides a platform for students to access this and other solved assignments for academic assistance.

Running head: GENDER BASED PAY GAP
Gender based pay gap
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

GENDER BASED PAY GAP
The gender based wage gap known to have reduced in the past few decades.
According to the research it have been found out that there is a presence of seven percent
gender earnings gap present among the male and the female drivers. The gap generally
depends on the experience, preferences of the place where they want to walk and preferences
over the driving speed. The results however showed that women in general will be having a
higher opportunity cost and preferences compared to that of the men (Liang et al. 2018). It
has been found out that the earnings of the men are in general more than seven percent than
the earnings of the female drivers. The reason behind this is that the earnings of the Uber
mainly depends upon the location and the time of week they are driving. Men usually drives
in more lucrative locations and can also drive at any time whether in the mid night or day.
They are also willing to drive in the areas of high crime rate which helps them in making
more money. The second factor for the gender pay gap is that past experience of the drivers
also matters. Men generally have high experience compared to the women as they drive more
in every week and are usually less likely to stop driving. The men driver will be probably
having more than 2500 lifetime trips completed (Cook et al. 2018). As a result of this, the
male driver of the Uber will be having more experience than the female driver which will
also help them to earn much more (Bussin & Christos, 2017). It has also been found out that
the drivers who in general drives more than thirty hours per week will be earning a higher
wage than the other who might have drove only ten hours per week. The average speed of the
male driver have been also found to be much higher than the woman which will
automatically enlarge the pay gap. However some of them also stated that in case of tips, the
female drivers get the favor. One of them also stated that the attrition rate of the women are
generally higher. Although the female drivers are known to get more tips in the platform
compared to the men. In general they get ten to twenty percent more tip than the male drivers.
It has been therefore found out that women in many cases choose to drive at the different
times of the week unlike men who tends to travel almost all throughout the day (What Can
Uber Teach Us About the Gender Pay Gap? - Freakonomics. 2018). Growth of flexible work
is mainly desirable by the women for improving the utility. Therefore it can be concluded by
saying that the factors which affects the pay gap of Uber are the experience of the drivers, the
driving locations and time of the driving along with the work of the drivers.

GENDER BASED PAY GAP
Reference list
Bussin, M., & Christos, D. (2017). The Uber of reward: hot button-remuneration. HR Future,
2017(Jan 2017), 32-35.
Cook, C., Diamond, R., Hall, J., List, J. A., & Oyer, P. (2018). The Gender Earnings Gap in
the Gig Economy: Evidence from over a Million Rideshare Drivers. Upubliceret
paper. Tilgængelig på: https://web. stanford. edu/~ diamondr/UberPayGap. pdf.
Besøgt, 26-04.
Liang, C., Hong, Y., Gu, B., & Peng, J. (2018). Gender Wage Gap in Online Gig Economy
and Gender Differences in Job Preferences.
What Can Uber Teach Us About the Gender Pay Gap? - Freakonomics. (2018). Retrieved
from http://freakonomics.com/podcast/what-can-uber-teach-us-about-the-gender-pay-
gap/