Male Uber Drivers Make More Than Female Uber Drivers OMG OMG OMG.

According to this, THE GENDER PAY GAP IS REAL EVERYONE PANIC OMG.

Yup. Male Uber drivers earn an average of about 7% more per hour than chick Uber drivers, and that’s according to a study done by the University of Chicago AND Stanford in conjunction with Uber.

Here are the ugly, horrific, gory details that will surely send feminists into major pussy-hat wearing protest mode:

Men average a pay rate of $21.28 per hour, while women earn roughly $1.24 less at $20.04 per hour on average, the study of more than 1.8 million drivers showed.

Women also reportedly earn $130 less per week than men working through the ride share application.

OMG OMG OMG SMOKING GUNS ALL OVER THE PLACE. The wage gap is totes f’realz.

The reason for the gap in pay? Well, hang on a second because I haven’t read that far, but I’m almost POSITIVE that it’s due to the patriarchy, and Uber’s clear preference for its male employees. This has sexism written all over it. SOMEONE PASS ME A PUSSY HAT.

Ok, gonna go finish reading the article now.

Oh.

Well, this is awkward.

Um, apparently, the reasons for the pay disparity are as follows:

1. Male drivers are more likely to drive in higher paying locations
2. Male drivers are, on average, faster drivers
3. Male drivers accept trips with shorter distances
4. Male drivers accept longer trips
5. Male drivers work longer hours
6. Female drivers had higher turnover rates with Uber (and drivers who stay with Uber longer typically earn higher pay simply by figuring out where the best routes are, when the routes pay best, etc.)

So, because of the choices that men and women Uber drivers are free to make (which is part of the appeal of BEING an Uber driver – the schedule flexibility and choices about where to drive and when), men, on average, choose to work longer hours, for longer periods of time, and in higher paying locations, faster than women. Got it.

So, no patriarchy? That’s going to disappoint a whole lot of feminists. Particularly because similar differences between men and women and the employment choices they make are HUGE FACTORS in determining their pay across the board, something that the “Gender Wage Gap” believers refuse to ever consider. Because why let reality get in the way of victimhood?

Now, the folks from Stanford and U of Chicago aren’t willing to just let the clear results speak for themselves. Nope – they wouldn’t be today’s universities if they didn’t go looking for a gender-normative reason for their findings.

The study concluded by naming external societal factors tied to traditional, gender-normative roles as the driving force behind the pay gap between its male and female drivers, and attributing those same factors to the gender pay gap in the work force, at large.
‘Overall, our results suggest that, even in the gender-blind, transactional, flexible environment of the gig economy, gender-based preferences (especially the value of time not spent at paid work and, for drivers, preferences for driving speed) can open gender earnings gaps,’ the study said.
‘The preference differences that contribute to pay differences in professional markets for lawyers and MBA’s also lead to earnings gaps for drivers on Uber, suggesting they are pervasive across the skill distribution and whether in the traditional or gig workplace.’
Diamond added:
‘I think this is showing that the gender pay gap is not likely to go away completely anytime soon. Unless somehow, things in our broader society really change, about how men and women are making choices about their broader lives, than just the labor market.’

And this is the problem. We have too many people deciding that the natural choices and tendencies that men and women have are wrong. Why should “broader society really change” at all? If women don’t want to drive as fast or as often or for as long, SO WHAT? If women choose careers in “care” professions, which are traditionally lower paying, SO WHAT? If women choose jobs with more flexibility which pay less on average, SO WHAT? Are we going to start forcing women to go work on oil rigs now?

Enough with this gender wage gap BS. It’s about as ridiculous as the race card at this point.