Gender Gap in Callback Rates for Remote Work Preferences

• In Event: Organizational Mechanisms of Inequality in Work and Entrepreneurship

Abstract

More than one in five workers in the United States works at least partially remotely. A significant body of scholarship examines the consequences of remote work for job satisfaction and employee retention as well as the division of household labor. Yet, strikingly little is known about whether job applicants’ stated preferences for remote work during the application process affect hiring decisions and whether these effects vary by applicant gender. Drawing on original data from a preregistered field experiment of more than 3,000 real hiring decisions, our results indicate that, compared to stating a preference for on-site work, stating a preference for remote work leads to a larger increase in callback rates for women applicants than for men applicants. This gendered pattern is particularly salient when employers have more discretion over salaries, which is consistent with the theoretical idea that employers perceive women as being willing to accept lower wages for the ability to work remotely and, thus, may be particularly interested in hiring women with remote work preferences because they believe they can hire them at a lower salary. Our research provides novel insight into how remote work intersects with gender to shape access to job opportunities in the United States.

Authors

• David Pedulla, Harvard University

• Aruna Ranganathan, Stanford University