How the ‘Relocation Penalty’ Hurts Women’s Pay
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Here's your money briefing for Monday, October 21st. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. With fewer of us working remotely full-time, more people are relocating to take a job. When couples decide to move, it's often the man who gets the bigger raise.
That's the relocation penalty for women. It's a big reason why women's pay lags behind men's. It's not just about what happens at work. It's about decisions that are made within the household. And when a couple decides to move, it often benefits the man's career, even if it means the woman takes a hit.
We'll go through the numbers with Wall Street Journal reporter Dalvin Brown and talk about what you can do to avoid a career setback if you're thinking of moving with a spouse for a job. That's after the break.
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How is the “relocation penalty” defined and introduced in this episode?
When couples relocate for a job, the man tends to benefit more. Wall Street Journal reporter Dalvin Brown joins me. Dalvin, in your story, you say couples are moving again for better job opportunities. What's changed about the job market?
We're seeing a shift in the job market because remote work, which was popular during the pandemic, is starting to decline. And some of the experts that I spoke to said that they suspect that it will continue to fall as companies embrace hybrid work, but certainly call more people into the office. the share of job seekers relocating for new positions was higher in the first two quarters of 2024. And that's after hitting a record low in the end of 2023. And because these remote work postings are down across industries like finance and government, moving for a job might be a better opportunity for couples and may even become more common.
In what scenarios are couples more likely to move for a job?
A study led by a Princeton University professor found that when couples move, they tend to do so if it's going to boost the man's career more. And that's even if the woman has a very healthy career and maybe even a higher salary.
Oh, so they would move for the man's benefit even though it could potentially derail a woman's career track.
What's really interesting is that even if the woman stands to benefit from the move, the man stands to benefit more. Researchers studied countries overseas and were able to also extrapolate what that might mean for couples in the U.S., but generally what they found was that a man's earnings go up between 5% and 10% after a move, and women tend to stay the same and may even decline.
What was the demographic of the couples in the study?
The study only focused on opposite sex couples. And what the researchers were really trying to find out is why does this happen? Why is it that when opposite sex couples move, one gender tends to benefit more than the other? What did they find?
Why does that happen?
What the researchers found was that some of the inequality that exists between men and women are the result of decisions that are made within the home. And it's not solely workplace bias, which absolutely occurs and can hurt women's careers and has kept women back for quite a long time.
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