WHY MEN EARN MORE:
The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap and What Women Can Do About
It
by
Warren Farrell, Ph.D.
Dr.
Warren Farrell, the only man ever elected three times to the Board
of the National Organization for Women in NYC, once asked, “If men
are paid more for the same work, why would anyone hire a man?”
He may be sorry he asked. But during the years of research that
followed, the answer evolved: Men earn more than women, but not for
the same work—for 25 different workplace choices. Men’s choices lead
to men earning more money; women’s choices lead to women having
better lives.
Men’s trade-offs include working more hours (women typically work
more at home); taking more-hazardous assignments (cab-driving;
construction; trucking); moving overseas or to an undesirable
location on-demand (women’s greater family obligations inhibit
this); and training for more-technical jobs with less people contact
(e.g., engineering).
Women’s choices appear more likely to involve a balance between work
and the rest of life. Women are more likely to balance income with a
desire for safety, fulfillment, potential for personal growth,
flexibility and proximity-to-home. These lifestyle advantages lead
to more people competing for these jobs and thus lower pay.
Only when Dr. Farrell’s research journey uncovered these 25
differences, did the “holy grail” become visible: women now earn
more money for the same work—that is, women earn more when they work
equal hours at the same job with the same size of responsibility for
the same length of time with equal productivity, etc. The women’s
movement can celebrate its greatest single triumph—exceeding its
goal of equal pay for equal work. A triumph that frees women to
enter the next level of progress...
Since men still earn more money, Why Men Earn More introduces to
women the 25 ways to higher pay, showing which trade-offs lead to
how much increase in pay, creating for women an opportunity to
decide which trade-offs are worth it given her individual
personality and current goals.
Introduction
Dr. Farrell shares his journey with us—how he saw his wife, a
business owner, responding to employees who wanted a balanced life
with equal pay. What he was being told by CEOs “in private” that
they were unwilling to say in public. Warren shares how his
discovery that never-married women have long out-earned
never-married men led him on the search for factors other than the
male-female factor that accounted for the pay gap, and helped him
understand that men’s workplace choices were not “choices” per se,
but the married man’s fulfillment of his financial responsibilities.
In the Intro, Why Men Earn More stuns us with some current data on
how both part-time working women now earn more than men when they
work equal hours, as well as how much more than men full-time
working women make if they have never been married. He introduces us
to the sources of his data (usually the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics) and his research methods. But at every moment, as our
sensibilities of political correctness are being shattered, we feel
Dr. Farrell reconstructing our vision, allowing the discovery of
opportunities for women that were missed when our binoculars were
focused on discrimination against women.
Part I
Chapter One: Field of Dreams: Choose the
Right Field and Higher Pay Will Come
Dr. Farrell begins with the first ten ways to higher pay—ten ways to
choose both a field and sub-field that pay well: the
“Field-with-Higher-Yield Formula.” He explains how almost every
field has high-paying sub-fields; which fields and sub-fields are
“fields of the future;” which are becoming more user-friendly to
women due to changes in technology.
Did you know that no woman has died in the Marines or Air Force in
the War in Iraq? Findings like this allow Dr. Farrell to guide women
safely where most fear to tread—into the two secrets of hazardous
occupations: first, where women can get equal pay with much
less-than-equal danger; and second, how, for example, running a
construction company allows a woman all the affirmative action
benefits for women-owned construction companies with none of the
hazards of being a construction worker.
Each approach of Dr. Farrell’s offers creative, win-win solutions.
While on the one hand he explains the money we miss when we follow
our bliss, he offers creative ways to earn the money to securely
pursue what we love to do. In this chapter Dr. Farrell begins his
push to get both sexes to look at each other and their work-family
lives more creatively.
Chapter Two: Doing
Time
This chapter looks at the average
benefit of each contribution of “Doing Time” in the workplace—from
hours worked to uninterrupted work experience with the same
employer, to commuting time. For example, if someone works 13% more
hours in the workplace, should they expect 13% more pay? No. They
should expect 44% more pay. Once we know the pay-off and the
trade-off, we look at the implications of these for planning a
family, or following your bliss; for traditional roles, or a
reversal of roles. Do top executive women wish they had put in more
hours, or fewer hours, or do they look at work time differently?
Cross-culturally, which women and men are the happiest—those who
work overtime or part time? And finally, what are the male-female
differences in each of these areas, and how much of the pay gap is
accounted for by men’s tendency to work that extra 13%, have more
uninterrupted experience, and so on?
Chapter Three: On the Move
In “On the Move” we discover that people who get higher pay are more
willing to move to undesirable locations at the company’s behest,
and, once on the job, are more willing to travel extensively (be an
international sales rep versus a local sales rep). We get advice
from top female executives on the importance of international
experience at an early age, and how companies are developing more
flexible, short-term ways for women to get that experience. We are
introduced to “Carpe Diem Moving” such as construction workers and
nurses moving where they’re needed when they’re needed. Since only
16% of “frequent flyers” are women, special emphasis is placed on
what needs to happen for a woman who wishes to travel for the family
to benefit emotionally.
Chapter Four: Responsibility, Training and
Ambition
We begin this chapter by discovering “You Can’t Tell a Salary by its
Title”—why, for example, a Corporate Vice President of Finance is
likely to make more and be promoted more quickly than a Corporate
Vice President for Human Resources. And why we can’t say “male
Corporate Vice Presidents of Finance earn more than female Corporate
Vice Presidents of Finance, therefore women are discriminated
against” until we determine whether the men have more financial
responsibilities (larger international companies, etc.) . Perhaps
the most intriguing part of the chapter is the differences between
the goals of men and women at every stage of life, leading to men
earning more money and women having more balanced lives, to women’s
visible juggling acts and men men’s invisible juggling acts.
Part I Conclusion
Part One’s goals include creating a different attitude toward the
workplace—so that when we hear, “men earn a dollar for each 80 cents
women earn” it will trigger for women 25 paths to higher pay rather
than one path to victimhood. It hopefully uncovered not just
twenty-five—but hundreds-- of little pay-offs such as the dozens of
ways to be a nurse, engineer or computer specialist--with a choice
tailored to each personality at every time of life. It introduces
new methods of looking at the workplace—of looking not just at field
of choice, but subfield; not just a field as it was or is, but a
field as technology will create it to be; a field transformed by the
evolution of men caring more for children and women creating more
money; of how fields will adjust to economic hard times and easy
times; of the importance of assessing not just pay but the
trade-offs of hours invested, moves required, risks taken, so each
man and woman can live a life of genuine power—the power that comes
from the knowledge that leads to control of our lives.
Part II
Chapter Five: What Women Contribute to the
Workplace
Drawing from his corporate workshops, Dr. Farrell tells us what men
love about working with women, and why it is important to not
pressure women into becoming “imitation men”. He gives many examples
of how women’s and men’s differences create workplace synergy—from
good cop/bad cop roles in domestic violence work to the creativity
of female funeral directors to the greater family focus of female
legislators. He concludes with what makes men feel threatened by
some women and what both sexes can do to reduce that feeling.
Chapter Six: Why Women and Men Approach
Work So Differently, Yet So Similarly
When women and men can be their own bosses, they are free to
approach work by priorities that are theirs, thus a look at the
differences between men-owned and women-owned businesses creates a
purer picture of their priorities. For starters, female-owned
businesses earn only 47% of what male-owned businesses earn. Why?
The twenty-five male-female differences are not tempered by either
corporate requirements or corporate egalitarianism. Pay is measured
by raw productivity. But also we see how more subtle influences of
female and male socialization, such as men’s tendency to pay for
women, may influence men’s greater willingness to pay for employees.
This chapter introduces “focused responsibilities” and “divided
responsibilities” and explains how women’s tendency toward divided
responsibilities will be especially viable in the 21st Century.
Chapter Seven: The Myths that Prevent Women
from Knowing Why Men Earn More
When women believe they earn less
than men for the same work, it makes sense for their husbands to
work and women to care for the children, and thus we create a
self-fulfilling prophecy of women leaving the workplace, justifying
lower pay. The belief also spawns many corollary myths that breed
contempt for men, such as “women are collaborative, men are
hierarhical,” or “women make better managers.” Dr. Farrell shows how
each of these beliefs are not only myths, but hurts women’s careers,
poisons love and divides families. Other than that, they’re great!
Chapter Eight: Discrimination Against Women
Does this mean there’s no discrimination against women? No. There
is. Dr. Farrell demonstrates the subtle ways in which, when a mother
works, we unwittingly “guilt trip da mama;” he explains to men the
unconscious mechanisms of the buddy-boy network, and explores how
women’s mentorship advantage is backfiring as today’s climate of
women suing men has turned men’s instinct to protect women into the
need to protect themselves. A chapter rich with solutions to these
discriminations.
Chapter Nine: Discrimination In Favor of
Women: Why Women Are Now Paid More Than Men for the Same Work
If women are now paid more than men for the same work, why is that?
Dr. Farrell begins with the legal mechanisms of discrimination in
favor of women: the “affirmative action tax” and “psychological
affirmative action” that together make it possible to pay a woman
more even if she produces less. Warren then looks at the social
mechanisms—contrasting “female comfort power” that works for women
with the fear of male sexuality that works against men; together,
they create the “caste system” of the touchable and untouchable
male. He concludes with some of the ways this discrimination in
favor of women forces men to develop skills to be paid equally,
which skills eventually lead men earning more (for different work).
Chapter Ten: The Genetic Celebrity Pay Gap
When a woman’s genes offer her enough beauty that men who know
nothing about her except her beauty nevertheless follow her—as we
might follow a celebrity—Dr. Farrell calls her a genetic celebrity.
In this chapter, we discover the “genetic celebrity pay gap”—how the
man “earns” his way to her attention by paying for dinners, drinks,
dates and diamonds; by creating career opportunities and sharing his
future earnings with her in marriage. We are introduced to “Genetic
Celebrity Hiring Discrimination” and “Access Discrimination” as well
as myriad forms of “invisible income” the genetic celebrity
generates, such as her power as a tip magnet. The results? The man
earns more money; the genetic celebrity often has more money, has
more time to spend it, and lives longer. But all is not roses as the
pedals of her genetic celebrity power wilts...
Chapter 11. Some Nagging Questions....
This brief chapter deals with two nagging questions: “When women
enter men’s occupations, doesn’t the pay go down?” and “Isn’t the
issue more than equal pay—isn’t it comparable worth?” In a sense,
the lessons of the entire book are the answer to both questions, and
Dr. Farrell concludes this chapter with a humorous view of what
comparable worth might look like were it proposed by men.
Chapter 12. Conclusions
Why Men Earn More concludes by connecting the dots between the goals
it hopes it fulfilled and the changes that we need to make if the
future is to be better for both ourselves and our children; between
our monetary futures and our emotional future; and between our
personal futures and our future within a global economy.
Appendix: Why Women Earn More: The
Statistical Breakdown of the Pay Paradox
An appendix that creates a starting point for the best estimates Dr.
Farrell can make as to how much pay each way to higher pay may
generate. For economists, statisticians and other academics, to be
used in professional journals and in law suits.
Dr. Warren Farrell
is the author of many books, including two award-winning
international best-sellers, Why Men Are The Way They Are plus
The Myth of Male Power. His most recent books are Women
Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say, which was a selection of the
Book-of-the-Month Club, and Father and Child Reunion about
how fathers can be successful at both work and home. His latest
book, just published this year, Why Men Earn More: The Startling
Truth Behind the Pay Gap and What Women Can Do About It, helps
both employers and employees understand what makes a company want to
increase an employee’s pay. His books are published in over 50
countries, and in 10 languages.
Dr. Warren Farrell is available for expert
testimony to help fathers stay equally involved in their children's
lives after divorce.
CLICK HERE to contact Dr. Warren Farrell for information.
www.WarrenFarrell.net (Why Men Earn More)
www.WarrenFarrell.biz (Father and Child Reunion)
www.WarrenFarrell.org (The Myth of Male Power)
www.WarrenFarrell.info (Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say)
www.WarrenFarrell.us (Why Men Are The Way They Are)
www.WarrenFarrell.ws (The Liberated Man)
Copyright 2004 Warren Farrell, Ph.D., all rights
reserved
