Gender inequality at work goes well beyond paychecks, according to new research from Bryant University Associate Professor of Economics Xiaofei Pan, Ph.D. Published in Management Science, the co-authored study examines how men and women respond to unequal workloads versus unequal earnings and what those differences could mean for workplace equity.
“Workload inequality is interesting in part because it hasn’t been studied as much in this area of the literature,” says Pan, whose recent research focuses on the gender earnings gap.
Pan and her co-author found that women, in general, are more tolerant than men of workload inequality relative to earnings inequality. While women tended to react more negatively to unequal pay than to unequal workloads, men had equally negative responses to both.
Recruiting 1,072 participants for their study, the researchers put individuals through a revised ultimatum game, which is typically used in economics to reveal insights into fairness and human decision-making.
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In their game, Pan and her co-author simulated workplace conditions where two paired workers decided whether to complete a total of 20 tasks with total earnings of $3. In the workload inequality condition, participants determined how to split the total workload while each worker received a fixed payment of $1.5. In the earnings inequality condition, participants decided how to split the total earnings of $3 while each worker completed a fixed workload of 10 tasks. Each task involved finding the U.S. zip codes for a GPS coordinate.
One participant (the proposer) would suggest the number of tasks, or how much pay, to allocate to their partner (the responder) — either out of 20 tasks or $3. The responder could either accept or reject the proposed allocation. If the responder accepted, both participants completed the tasks and received payments accordingly. If the responder rejected the proposal, neither individual completed the task nor received payment.
Compiling the findings, researchers emphasized that women’s greater tolerance for workload inequality than earnings inequality may have more profound effects.
"Let's say I take on more workload even though we’re getting the same earnings. If I take time to do those tasks, then I don't have time to work on other things, and over time and over years, maybe it will hurt my career progress,” Pan says.
Their study notes that persistent disproportionate workloads can undermine job performance, reduce availability for additional income-generating activities, and hinder career advancement opportunities. Additionally, women may prefer flexible hours while being more accepting of unequal task allocation, resulting in more intensive workloads within fixed time periods. The co-authors add that these patterns could help explain gender differences in workplace burnout, particularly women’s higher levels of emotional exhaustion.
Considering why women are not as phased by an unequal workload, researchers suggest that this may be due to underlying intrinsic preference. For instance, women are accustomed to imbalances in household responsibilities with outside research showing that women spend, on average, twice as much time as men on childcare and household tasks.
While improvements have been made in employment equity, issues in the gender pay gap continue to persist around the world and across industries. Pan notes that there is some awareness among practitioners that women may be more tolerant to workload inequality, but that there should be training programs available for managers to raise awareness of this issue. This way, they can be cognizant of each employee’s workload.
“Equipping them with the tools to identify and address such disparities is essential,” Pan says.