A study of Uber drivers found that workplace flexibility may not close the gender pay gap

Washington Post, July 09, 2018

Men who drive for Uber earn about 7 percent more than female drivers earn, according to a recent working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research that also cites three main causes for the gap in earnings.

Looking at data from more than a million Uber drivers, researchers found differences in how male and female drivers approach their jobs that they believe account for the lopsided pay: Men drive faster; men gain more experience driving, and men drive in more lucrative — but sometimes less safe — locations.

Uber provided such detailed data that researchers were able to fully account for the causes behind the ride-hailing service’s gender pay gap, said John List, an economist at the University of Chicago and one of the paper’s co-authors.