How Nonwage Amenity Trade-Offs Exacerbate the Gender Pay Gap

How Nonwage Amenity Trade-Offs Exacerbate the Gender Pay Gap

When workers choose jobs with predictable schedules, safer conditions, or greater autonomy, they are often paying a price: lower wages. In some cases, these hidden nonwage amenity trade-offs are considerable. Indeed, my research shows that these “amenity trade-offs” can account for as much as two-thirds of the gender pay gap. In this column, I first introduce a new approach built upon my research to measuring these nonwage amenities trade-offs a…