It pays to be male

I wrote a column about a month ago on the differences in pay between men and women in similar legal jobs, something economists have called a wage or earnings gap. It used to be legal for employers to pay people different wages for the same work based on gender (or race, religion, national origin, or color), but that conduct was prohibited in 1963 (for gender only) in the Equal Pay Act and in 1964 (for all of the categories I've listed) by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Despite these laws, a persistent gap exists. According to the most recent report from the Department of the Census, women earn 77.5 cents for every dollar earned by men. People disagree on the cause of this gap, but there is evidence that at least a small percentage is because of discrimination.

A new study has just come out adding another layer to the analysis. Karen Schilt, a sociologist at the University of Chicago  and Matthew Wiswall, an economist at NYU looked at pay for people undergoing gender transitions in Before and After: Gender Transitions, Human Capital, and Workplace Experiences (registration or subscription required to download). The abstract says:

We use the workplace experiences of transgender people – individuals who change their gender typically with hormone therapy and surgery – to provide new insights into the long-standing question of what role gender plays in shaping workplace outcomes. Using an original survey of male-to-female and female-to-male transgender people, we document the earnings and employment experiences of transgender people before and after their gender transitions. We find that while transgender people have the same human capital after their transitions, their workplace experiences often change radically. We estimate that average earnings for female-to-male transgender workers increase slightly following their gender transitions, while average earnings for male-to-female transgender workers fall by nearly 1/3. This finding is consistent with qualitative evidence that for many male-to-female workers, becoming a woman often brings a loss of authority, harassment, and termination, but that for many female-to-male workers, becoming a man often brings an increase in respect and authority. These findings challenge the omitted variables explanations for the gender pay gap and illustrate the often hidden and subtle processes that produce gender inequality in workplace outcomes.

This study is a very important addition to the gender pay gap issue, and it is also an important look at the treatment of transgendered people in the workplace aside from that. The very negative treatment of male-to-female workers may embody a judgment about the value of women workers, and many people will use the study as proof that discrimination against women is the cause of the differences in treatment after transition.

The actions of employers also may embody a judgment about the decision of a male person to become a female one. In other words, maybe it is this change from more privileged status to less privileged status that is especially scorned. Studies about men in caregiving roles may support this view. Those studies suggest that men who who are primary caregivers tend to be viewed by others as mentally deficient in a fundamental way, similar to those who are mentally retarded or very elderly. And so, female people in female roles are less privileged than male people in male roles, but male people in female roles are particularly penalized.

Overall, it's a lot of food for thought.