Uber’s objective, driver-controlled pay system still produces a pay gap:
The mainstream media also continues to cite the pay gap as a problem, disregarding evidence that it’s merely the result of free choice. Recently, an even more convincing rebuttal has arisen from the tech sector.
Uber, which pays its drivers not on an inherently subjective individual basis but via a formula that takes into account time and mileage driven, still has a 7 percent pay gap between male and female drivers. That’s right: a company that allocates salary in a way that is necessarily blind to an employee’s sex has still generated a pay gap, because men and women make different choices.
It turns out that female Uber drivers work shorter hours, are less likely to work during peak times, and drive more slowly. Because the compensation structure is automatic, Stanford researchers were able to pin down the three factors that caused the gap: experience on the platform, willingness to work at peak times and in busy areas, and driving speed preferences.
Somehow, I doubt these facts will even act as a speed bump to feminists rushing to denounce Uber’s sexist pay gap. Still, it would be interesting to see how race and other factors affect average pay.