STUDY FINDS GENDER PAY GAP AMONG UBER DRIVERS (2018)

PUBLISHED ON FEB 19, 2018

Using a sample of over 1 million drivers, a team of researchers from the University of Chicago's Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, Stanford University, and Uber found the platform's male drivers earn about 7 percent more than do women. The team noted that Uber’s payment algorithm does not factor in gender, so payments should be equal between men and women for the same amount of driving; passenger ratings also do not affect drivers' pay. Department Chair John List and the study's coauthors recently spoke with the Freakonomics Radio podcast, explaining that if there were any driver pay gap, he would expect it to favor women: “I knew that [women] had worked fewer hours per week [in their other jobs], so they had a chance to cherry-pick the better hours during the week [when working for Uber].” So what might cause the difference in drivers' pay? The study offers three factors: length of experience working with Uber, where and when drivers choose to work, and driving speed. Access the new working paper: "The Gender Earnings Gap in the Gig Economy: Evidence from over a Million Rideshare Drivers," from Cody Cook, Rebecca Diamond, Jonathan Hall, John A. List, and Paul Oyer.