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Burn, Ian
Publications (4 of 4) Show all publications
Burn, I. (2020). The Relationship between Prejudice and Wage Penalties for Gay Men in the United States. Industrial & labor relations review, 73(3), 650-675
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The Relationship between Prejudice and Wage Penalties for Gay Men in the United States
2020 (English)In: Industrial & labor relations review, ISSN 0019-7939, E-ISSN 2162-271X, Vol. 73, no 3, p. 650-675Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article estimates the empirical relationship between prejudicial attitudes toward homosexuality and the wages of gay men in the United States. It combines data on prejudicial attitudes toward homosexuality from the General Social Survey with data on wages from the U.S. Decennial Censuses and American Community Surveys-both aggregated to the state level. The author finds that a one standard deviation increase in the share of individuals in a state who are prejudiced toward homosexuals is correlated with a decrease in the wages of gay men of between 2.7% and 4.0%. The results also suggest that the prejudice of managers is responsible for this correlation. The author finds that a one standard deviation increase in the share of the managers in a state who are prejudiced toward homosexuals is associated with a 1.9% decrease in the wages of gay men. The author finds no evidence that the wage penalty for gay men is correlated with the prejudice of customers or co-workers.

Keywords
discrimination, gay, bisexual men and women, wage differentials, sexual orientation, job search
National Category
Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-173021 (URN)10.1177/0019793919864891 (DOI)000479604500001 ()
Available from: 2019-10-04 Created: 2019-10-04 Last updated: 2022-02-26Bibliographically approved
Neumark, D., Burn, I. & Button, P. (2019). Is It Harder for Older Workers to Find Jobs? New and Improved Evidence from a Field Experiment. Journal of Political Economy, 127(2), 922-970
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Is It Harder for Older Workers to Find Jobs? New and Improved Evidence from a Field Experiment
2019 (English)In: Journal of Political Economy, ISSN 0022-3808, E-ISSN 1537-534X, Vol. 127, no 2, p. 922-970Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We design and implement a large-scale resume correspondence study to address limitations of existing field experiments testing for age discrimination that may bias their results. One limitation that may bias results is giving older and younger applicants similar experience to make them otherwise comparable. A second limitation is that greater unobserved differences in human capital investment of older applicants may bias the results against finding age discrimination. On the basis of over 40,000 job applications, we find robust evidence of age discrimination in hiring against older women, especially those near retirement age, but considerably less evidence of age discrimination against men.

National Category
Economics and Business Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-168650 (URN)10.1086/701029 (DOI)000463838300011 ()
Available from: 2019-05-03 Created: 2019-05-03 Last updated: 2022-02-26Bibliographically approved
Burn, I. & Kettler, K. (2019). The More You Know, the Better You’re Paid? Evidence from Pay Secrecy Bans for Managers. Paper presented at 30th Annual Conference of the European Association of Labour Economists (EALE), Lyon, France, September 13-15, 2018. Labour Economics, 59, 92-109
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The More You Know, the Better You’re Paid? Evidence from Pay Secrecy Bans for Managers
2019 (English)In: Labour Economics, ISSN 0927-5371, E-ISSN 1879-1034, Vol. 59, p. 92-109Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Approximately half of Americans are employed at firms where employees are forbidden or discouraged from discussing their pay with coworkers. Employees who violate these rules may be subject to punishment or dismissal. While many employees are legally protected from reprisal under the National Labor Rights Act, the law exempts managers from these protections. Eleven states have passed laws banning pay secrecy policies for managers. In this paper, we explore what effect these state laws had on the wages and employment of managers. We find pay secrecy bans increased the wages of managers by 3.5% but had no effect on the gender wage gap, job tenure, or labor supply. The effects are heterogeneous along a number of dimensions. Below the median wage, female managers experienced a 2.9% increase in their wages relative to male managers. Above the median wage, male managers experienced a 2.7% increase in their wages relative to female managers. The wage gains were concentrated among managers employed at firms with fewer than 500 employees.

National Category
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-168829 (URN)10.1016/j.labeco.2019.03.003 (DOI)000484654300007 ()
Conference
30th Annual Conference of the European Association of Labour Economists (EALE), Lyon, France, September 13-15, 2018
Available from: 2019-05-10 Created: 2019-05-10 Last updated: 2022-02-26Bibliographically approved
Burn, I. (2018). Not All Laws are Created Equal: Legal Differences in State Non-Discrimination Laws and the Impact of LGBT Employment Protections. Journal of Labor Research, 39(4), 462-497
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Not All Laws are Created Equal: Legal Differences in State Non-Discrimination Laws and the Impact of LGBT Employment Protections
2018 (English)In: Journal of Labor Research, ISSN 0195-3613, E-ISSN 1936-4768, Vol. 39, no 4, p. 462-497Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In this paper, I study the impact of legal differences in state employment nondiscrimination acts (ENDAs) for gay men and lesbian women on labor market outcomes. Employing a DDD approach, I show that enacting an employment non-discrimination act is associated with increased wages of gay men and decreased employment of lesbian women. If all employment non-discrimination acts are treated as identical, these laws increased the hourly wages of gay men by 2.7% and decreased the employment of lesbian women by 1.7% and their hours worked by 0.7 hours. The results show that the strength of the law can result in heteroge-neous effects of the laws for gay men, but not for lesbian women. ENDAs with both punitive and compensatory damage provisions resulted in smaller wage increases for gay men than ENDAs with only compensatory damage provisions. ENDAs with longer statutes of limitations for complaints increased the employment of gay men, whereas laws with shorter statutes of limitations decreased employment. Based on the estimates from the state-level employment non-discrimination acts, I argue that extending federal protections under Title VII would lead to a small increase in the wages of gay men, but would significantly reduce the employment of lesbian women.

Keywords
Discrimination, Law and economics, LGBT population
National Category
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-160920 (URN)10.1007/s12122-018-9272-0 (DOI)000451442100005 ()
Available from: 2018-10-11 Created: 2018-10-11 Last updated: 2022-03-23Bibliographically approved
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