The Gender Wage Gap on an Online Labour Market: The Cost of Interruptions

Abstract

This paper analyses gender differences in working patterns and wages on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Using information on 2 million tasks, I find no gender difference in task selection nor experience on the platform. Nonetheless, women earn 20% less per hour on average. Half of this gap is explained by differences in the scheduling of work; women have more fragmented work patterns with consequences for their task completion speed. A follow up survey shows that the wage gap is concentrated amongst women with young children, who also report that domestic responsibilities affect their ability to plan and complete work online.

Keywords: Flexibility, Gender Difference, Gig economy, Multitasking, Telework

JEL Classification: J16, J24, J31