Tuesday, April 12, 2011

One Reason Why Males Make More Than Females: Risky Occupations

See Next Equal Occupational Fatality Day in 2021 at Carpe Diem. In 2009, 92.9% of job fatalities were male. Excerpt:

"A disproportionate number of men work in higher-risk occupations that are typically compensated with higher pay like coal mining (almost 100% male), fire fighters (96.4% male), police officers (87% male), correctional officers (74% male), farming, fishing and forestry (76.5% male) and construction (95.4% male), BLS data here. A disproportionate number of women work in lower-risk, more comfortable and safer industries, often with lower pay to compensate for the more worker-friendly, indoor, comfortable, air-conditioned office environments, like Office and Administrative Support Occupations (79% female), Education, Training and Library Occupations (73.8%), and Healthcare (74.3%). These differences in work environments could likely reflect differences in "revealed preference" by gender - men prefer higher-paid, higher risk occupations, and women prefer lower-paid, lower risk occupations, in general and on average. It might not have anything to do with discrimination, and everything to do with differences in risk tolerances and risk-reward preferences."

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