Is it possible that working fewer hours would make men worth more, and help to close the gender gap in wages in the bargain?
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I know, you thought that was a typo. That what I really meant to title this article was “Are Men Working Too Hard for Too Little.” Right?
… to meet management’s expectations, or to be considered a dedicated and worthwhile employee, you had to work an excessive number of hours. So excessive, in fact, that you were scrambling to look like you were working just so you could put in the hours even when there was nothing productive to do.
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But according to the New Yorker in an article on the findings of a recent study titled, “Overwork and the Slow Convergence in the Gender Gap in Wages,” it’s possible that one of the factors in the discrepancy between men’s and women’s salaries is not the difference in education, (as the New Yorker article says, women are now more likely to earn a college degree than men) or the difference in experience.
It might actually be the number of hours they work.
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The article begins with a snapshot of a work culture in which, to meet management’s expectations, or to be considered a dedicated and worthwhile employee, you had to work an excessive number of hours. So excessive, in fact, that you were scrambling to look like you were working just so you could put in the hours even when there was nothing productive to do.
The study was designed by sociologists Youngjoo Cha, of Indiana University, and Kim Weeden, of Cornell, who offer the theory that one consequence of team objectives, where the number of hours you spend at your desk is often equated to your value in the organization, might be one cause of the continued discrepancy in salaries between the genders.
This study doesn’t address the issues that have been cited around the theory that more of the lower paying jobs are being filled by women, or of women being paid a lower hourly salary. And, while the study collected data from other sectors, the focus of the report was on the impact to professional and managerial positions “where overwork is most concentrated.”
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But let’s just, for this article, (otherwise this article will become a book) look at this one theory cited in the New Yorker piece – that not only are men overworked, but, because they’re having to stretch their time to “pay their dues” and climb the ladder, they’re also overpaid.
The study gives a definition of “overworked” that probably makes a lot of you (men and women both) feel suddenly tired. Because a lot of us have (and probably still do) work more than 50 hours per week.
Their research suggests that what they call “overwork”—defined as working fifty hours or more a week—is partly to blame. In the past thirty years, the proportion of Americans who put in those kinds of hours has grown. In the early eighties, thirteen percent of men and three per cent of women did; in 2000, it was nineteen percent of men and seven percent of women. Cha and Weeden say that the trend slowed in the aughts, probably because of the recession, but the numbers remain high. And throughout this period men have been more likely than women to grind out marathon hours. “Women did, too,” Kim Weeden told me. “It’s not like the demand went out for people to put in more hours and only men responded. But the gender gap in hours stayed stable.” More men than women “overworked.”
From my experience, I will say that a man’s assumed ability to “put in the extra hours” has been a hiring plus. Or maybe I should say that the hiring managers I’ve worked with assumed that a female prospect would have responsibilities to home and family that would prevent her from being able to be “overworked.”
Men will also be the ones facing burn out, relationship issues, and resentment from children because Daddy never makes it to a game. They’ll be the ones with health issues and stress related problems like depression or impotence.
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It seems like a reasonable theory that those who work the hours get the assignments and promotions that result in the higher paychecks. Which, if men are hired for their ability to work the hours, then men will be the ones who do in fact, work those hours, and men will be the ones stepping into those higher paying positions.
Men will also be the ones facing burn out, relationship issues, and resentment from children because Daddy never makes it to a game. They’ll be the ones with health issues and stress related problems like depression or impotence.
I don’t think there’s enough “overpay” to compensate for these consequences of “overwork.”
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Is it possible, that in the spiral of downsizing the number of employees and seeking to combine multiple roles into one job description, organizations began valuing flexibility, availability, and overworkability so highly that they’ve actually ended up paying “too much” for those who make the sacrifice?
Or is it, as the author suggests, due to corporations moving to “project teams” where, much like High School Chemistry experiments, it’s hard to tell who really did the most work so the prize goes to the person who puts in the most face time?
Why are we still gauging value according to sacrifice instead of creativity and productivity?
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Perhaps both trends have contributed. But the more important question is, “why men?”
I’m not buying the idea that men would rather pretend to be chained to their desk while reading a novel online or scrolling through Cabela’s online offerings or filling out their brackets for the next playoff series.
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But for that matter, why anyone?
Why are we still gauging value according to sacrifice instead of creativity and productivity?
Why are we still compromising creativity and productivity to our habit of turning the crank of the corporate machine? I can’t say if these employees are overpaid for what they produce, that’s a generalization that would be hard to justify. But I do know that it takes energy to “look busy” and that the stress of having to work the hours, without the satisfaction of a meaningful outcome burns more energy yet. So I suspect that if they worked fewer hours they would (if they were both competent and striving) actually achieve more to earn the salary they’re being paid. What do you think?
Your article is your take on another article but that other article does not actually provide any actual evidence of the theory you are working under. It uses anecdotes and assumptions but no actual study with hard an fast numbers that I can find. It is a couple of ‘researchers’ that had a theory then set out to prove the theory but they never actually got around to doing that.
All great questions and great issues raised here. One “yeah, but” and a question. The article seems to be focused on “career men” or “professional men.” It most clearly describes a man who works at one job, working for a corporation, working his way up some sort of career ladder. Millions and millions of American men, a growing percentage actually, don’t have employment like that. They work multiple part time jobs. They beg and plead to pick up any hours they can from their potential employers. They don’t feel competitive pressure to work more hours, it’s their debt that pressures… Read more »
This article/post seems to change much of the talk about Equal Pay and Job Security between Genders…… Too bad this will only stay on GMP because even Men CAN’T “Have it All”
The only way guys will work less is if it’s mandated by law. To many reasons to keep killing yourself to this point.
I think if men worked less hours they’d get fired and replaced by a guy who would. Companies don’t care about efficiency – that’s why salaried employment has become so popular. They just want you chained to the desk until you practically pass out from exhaustion. Can’t take it? You’ll have plenty of time to rest in the unemployment line.
That’s basically the work expectations in Japan. They even have a word that means “death from overworking.
Dixie states: “it’s possible that one of the factors in the discrepancy between men’s and women’s salaries is not the difference in education – it might actually be the number of hours they work.” Indeed, it’s a factor. Our Bureau of Labor stats show that MALES WORK AN AVERAGE OF FIVE HOURS MORE PER WEEK than women. In addition, men tend to commute much farther to their jobs, work odd shifts, travel overnight, and attend additional training, etc. – all factors which must be considered when comparing the average male/female wage gap. And this doesn’t even begin to deal with… Read more »