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Subscribe to RSSWhen the risk of workplace sexual harassment is high, companies pay bigger salaries, a new study shows. And that may just be because it's cheaper to give a bump in pay than it is to banish bad behavior.
Just as employers dole out bigger paychecks to workers in jobs that come with a risk for injury and fatality, many are now paying more when the risk for sexual harassment is high, says the study's author Joni Hersch, a professor of law and economics at Vanderbilt University.
And it turns out this strategy might actually work. Hersch cites an example of a female mining engineer who chose to put up with sexual harassment rather than take a lower paying job with better working conditions. “She could have had a nicer job, but she likes the higher pay,” Hersch said.
For the new study Hersch calculated the risks of sexual harassment by industry, age group and sex by scrutinizing claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her study was published in the American Economic Review.
When she combined that data with information on pay, Hersch came up with some intriguing results. For example, she found that while women were six times as likely to be harassed as their male counterparts, men were getting far more relief in their paychecks.
Echoing the disparity between male and female incomes, the payoff for putting up with harassment was an extra 50 cents an hour for men and an extra 25 cents an hour for women.
Mining and construction had the most EEOC complaints by women. Interestingly, mining also turned out to be bad news for men, scoring the second highest, right behind the information industry, when it came to EEOC complaints.
For the most part, the worst places for women to work were those dominated by men. An exception is the leisure and hospitality category, which includes the restaurant industry.
Leisure and hospitality employees an almost equal number of men and women. But women still bore the brunt of harassment with 7 times as many claims to the EEOC as men.
And when Hersch looked specifically at food services, she found that the rate of harassment among women aged 25 to 44 was second only to that experienced by women working in mining.
Perhaps not surprisingly the rate went down with age.
With the economy still in the tank, Hersch expects companies are going to continue to be able to buy their way out of the problem for quite some time.
“With over 9 percent unemployment for the last four years, it’s not likely to change,” she said. “At a time of such high unemployment people are reluctant to leave their jobs and or to file a complaint.”
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No surprise. "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil".
Money, Greed, Lust.. Power... all the fruits of selfish men.
You forgot to include MARTHA STEWART .. She was no saint to work for !!!
bob
I like money and so does my family. We can never have enough money.
Agreed. The same attitude that would allow harassment would drive lax pay policies. Tighter ships would reign in both... so I guess we don't agree with the article.
Sociopathic jerks with poor risk assessment paying to cover their tracks when they commit a wrong? That is not news in the least!
What an awful conclusion to reach - that salaries mirror the rate of sexual harassment.
How about this novel idea - more men in workplace (which results in higher incidents) = higher average salaries?
The logic behind the conclusion in this article is pretty poor. Whether it's mainly inferred by the author or the woman behind the study itself.
Women just complain more about sexual harassment than men do. Men usually just blow it off, or consider it Innocent flirting, or they just like it.
LOL, ouch!
They can't use the number of complaints filed with the EEOC alone to determine how much more likely women are to be sexually harassed. Women generally take much greater offense to much less bad behavior than men do, so they're just much more likely to actually file claims. I'm not saying they're not more likely than men to be sexually harassed, but I doubt it's on the order of six or seven times so.
The word "Harressment" is miss spelled. HARASSMENT
I'll take sexual harassment if it means more dough in my check.
It shouldn't have to be an either/or. If the harassment is between equals, it's not hard to take care of, but when it's your boss, now that's the problem.
I'm not greedy, I'll take less pay for a job with sexual harassment from attractive women.
It's a sad comment on our society that one should be forced into his kind of a choice. The next step is bonuses for inappropriate sex?
Sexual harassment doesn't exist. Simply a power grab by women who can't get ahead otherwise.
Hm, what does take, maybe your wife, sister or mother to have to put up with unwanted attention from some idiot as she tries to do her job before an ignorant guy like yourself understands what "sexual harrassment" is about? It is not about "getting ahead" or filing lawsuits, it is about trying to earn a living without being humiliated. Wise up!!!
Misogynist. I'm sure that you haven't got any attention from a woman your whole life. So, men are never sexually harrassed? I'm sure with that charming personality, you are a constant victim. Not!!
I'm not saying that I agree with sickenedvet, but lets face it, lots of women DO use sexual harassment as leverage. I've personally seen it happen. I've also witnessed women saying and doing inappropriate things to men in the workplace--men are just SOOOO much less likely to take it all the way to court.
@Ana Explain to me how disavowing the fiction that is sexual harassment makes me a misogynist (definition: one who hates women, in )? To the contrary, I respect women that stand up for themselves FACE TO FACE, as men do with one another when faced with a personality conflict. "Sexual harassment" has no evidence, no proof, just countless reams of high drama that is embellished for the HR attorneys and designed to suck settlement money from firms (as though the ENTIRE firm is to blame), when women are either a.) fired b.) not promoted c.) not feeling much like working, but still wanting $$$. I repeat, there is no such thing as sexual harassment. Only immature, usually incompetent women that want something for nothing.
Talk about spurious correlation. Has this "researcher" actually earned a degree?
I suppose you'll say next a violent sexual assault is not a rape but is a response to a subconscious request from the victim. If you admit there is a victim.
No. Rape is a violent crime, which can be independently verified by a prompt accuser, police investigation, and medical/incident forensics. Sexual harassment on the other hand, is exclusively a he said/she said that never has proof, only the threat of financially harassing nuisance lawsuits. As such, it is a quick buck for women and their attorneys because firms would rather pay a quick settlement through their insurance companies than be savaged in the press or forced to pay a much larger amount of money defending themselves. As such, sexual harassment DOES NOT exist. Pure fabrication.
Rule #1: NEVER accuse someone who makes less than you of sexual harassment.
How does the survey count the women like Leona Helmsley who instigate sex with the boss to advance?
This article is assuming too much. It says this strategy might actually work. It tells me right there that the writer doesn't know whereof he/she speaks. If you are being sexually harassed, you know that a bigger pay check is not going to make it ok. Sexual harassment is no joke. Idiotic stories like this one are a joke.
Man or Woman, when power is involved, every thing is fair play to these people. No big earth shattering news on this front.
Can't say nothing about nothing without pissin somebody off now a days...People need to lighten up and not take every damn thing sooooo serious.
This article is completely bogus. The people working at higher paying jobs are not harrassed more than others, they just send more complaints to the EEOC. I'm sure people working at bars/nightclubs get "harrassed" much more, but they don't complain about it. If inappropriate language is considered harrassment, bartenders and servers are harrassing each other all the time!
Offices are more stringent and usually have higher standards than those types of places. Respectable behavior is expected, so if the opposite is occuring, people are quick to do something about it.
Um...this is the problem with correlations. It's not always easy to figure out which side is causal. Maybe the harassment is higher BECAUSE of the salaries. Salaries are high in my industry, but it's a good-ol'-boy industry, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's a lot of harassment that goes unreported.
After decades of laws and policies to curb sexual harassment, it remains prevalent. Why?
Is it possible something is missing?
Is it possible we should consider another way of looking at sexual harassment other than through the feminist lens of "male power and control," which often suggests a "lock 'em up and throw away the key" approach, an approach that clearly has failed?
Is it possible that women contribute to the problem without knowing how? (No, it's not by the way they dress.)
I recommend a reading of an in-depth analysis of the sexes' most destructive behavioral difference:
"The Sexual Harassment Quagmire" at http://battlinbog.blog-city.com/the_sexual_harassment_quagmire_digging_out_with_true_equali.htm.
Women ABSOLUTELY contribute to the problem with how they dress and wear their hair. If a woman looks like she wants sex, and a guy flirts with her, suddenly it is sexual harassment.
Women set the trap every day theu wear high heels, a low cut blouse or a clingy sweater. Don't get me started on all fo the stupid psuh-up bras (a.k.a. FALSE ADVERTISING)
i am writing a book "THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT SEXUAL HARASSER" . It is a book about what 55% of people really think . The other 45% can kiss my a$$. Have a good day whiners.
This is not fiction: in the 1980s, a clerical employee at my office wore, on casual Friday, a T-shirt saying, "Sexual Harassment—I consider it a benefit of my employment."
My, how times have changed.
When I first searching for a job as an adult female, I noticed that with no education the jobs that were available were mostly minimum wage. However those positions that were manual labor paid more. With all this being said, I took a temp job in a male dominated field. I was very good at my job, and was offered a full time position with in a month and a raise. After about a week, the comments, ass slaps, and offers started. I put up with it for 6 months, one person crossed the line stating that we had... I filed a sexual harassment claim, they offered to move him if I could do his job. I tried but was not able to quickly lift 200lb cabinets. I was then "down sized".
Bottom line from my experience male drive jobs pay more, if your going to work in them expect it. Unless you sue in the long run either stoop to their level or get out , by choice or ...
When I first searching for a job as an adult female, I noticed that with no education the jobs that were available were mostly minimum wage. However those positions that were manual labor paid more. With all this being said, I took a temp job in a male dominated field. I was very good at my job, and was offered a full time position with in a month and a raise. After about a week, the comments, ass slaps, and offers started. I put up with it for 6 months, one person crossed the line stating that we had... I filed a sexual harassment claim, they offered to move him if I could do his job. I tried but was not able to quickly lift 200lb cabinets. I was then "down sized".
Bottom line from my experience male drive jobs pay more, if your going to work in them expect it. Unless you sue in the long run either stoop to their level or get out , by choice or ...
Jobs in male-dominated industries do pay more overall, but of course it's unreasonable for women in those fields to expect the same pay as men simply for doing the same amount and type of work. This isn't a gender thing so much as an insider/outsider thing. People who are coming into, say, a family-owned business are going to be discriminated against just as much, if not more, as a woman entering a male-dominated business.
To get the same amount of pay as an insider, the outsider must do more work in less time, and the quality has to be better. Luckily this is usually not difficult. Unfortunately, the attempt to earn equal pay alienates the insider co-workers.
As soon as the slackers (male or female) realize that an outsider is outperforming them, they worry that a supervisor will call them to account for their less than stellar productivity. So they start looking for ways to get rid of the outsider. Harassment is just one convenient way of doing it.
Wow! A whole 50 cents an hour. Daddy needs a new pair of shoes (oops, Uncle Sam will take it's share first).
Just like bullying one has to expose themselves to harassment.
I agree with outrider-jns. Get a grip!
Take the money and bitch. The new American Women. No wonder the purchase a lady from down south or overseas websites are growing in record numbers.
The laws are supposed to be there to protect people from being preyed upon by their superiors and to prevent a hostile work place environment, such as an individual or group of one sex making inappropriate comments to the other sex where it is not welcomed. As a woman in a male-dominated field, I will tell you that I'd have to think very long and very hard about ever filing anything, and it would have to be a pretty egregious situation that I couldn't resolve some other way. You can legislate equality, but you can't legislate respect.
What a sad comentary on what people will do for money. Might as well put on some sleezy clothes and stand on the street corner.
It's simple. Sex has no place in the workplace. You are there to work, not find sexual partners. It is also grossly unprofessional to deliberately make sexual comments simply to see how embarrassed or outraged you can make another person feel. "So, what color underwear are you wearing today?" and similar comments will obviously disrupt a person's ability to get his or her work done. If you want to do well at your job, you should be doing everything possible to make your entire company a success, and that means maintaining a congenial work environment where people can contribute their maximum effort, instead of having to dwell on your disgusting misbehavior and waste time filing harassment claims and lawsuits.
You are right. I'm a guy in the enertainment industry and I am straight and you wouldn't believe the amount of gay sexual harrassment
Just goes to prove trickle down corruption is on the move and comes with a price for those who have no morals and fall for anything; they're selling they're souls. "The love of money is the root of all evil".
Does the word "prostitution" ring any bells?