The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 107 No. 1 2025

The Gender Wage Gap in an Online Labor Market: The Cost of Interruptions

Abi Adams¹; Kotaro Hara²; Kristy Milland³; Chris Callison-Burch⁴

¹ University of Oxford · ² Singapore Management University · ³ Turker-Nation · ⁴ University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

This paper analyzes gender differences in working patterns and wages on Amazon Mechanical Turk, a popular online labor platform. Using information on 2 million tasks, we find no gender differences in task selection nor experience. Nonetheless, women earn 20% less per hour on average. Gender differences in working patterns are a significant driver of this wage gap. Women are more likely to interrupt their working time on the platform with consequences for their task completion speed. A follow-up survey shows that the gender differences in working patterns and hourly wages are concentrated among workers with children.

DOI

10.1162/rest_a_01282

Volume

107

Issue

1

Pages

55-64

Language

en

Sources

openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref

Cite

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