Employee Wages
F M
Has firstborn sons: +0.8% -0.5%
Has firstborn daughters: +1.1% +0.6%
The story here is that when men have children, in general, female employees wages go up, by pretty much the same amount. However, when the firstborn is a boy, they are harder on men, and a little more respectful of women.
I'd personally interpret this as men becoming more respectful of women when they witness their wives undergoing childbirth. However, the more drastic effect of child gender can be seen on male employee wages. I suppose the CEO might be channeling frustration in child-rearing a boy on his male employees.
I think that you have a very good point. The article should have been something like "Child Effect: When male CEO wife has a child, relative pay for women goes up".
More of a "My wife gave birth and that helped me gain respect/comprehension towards women" than a "I have a daughter and I'm realizing she'll grow up in biased world, time to fix that beside me".
Not that it is a better or worse conclusion, but quite different IMO.
Can you see if the study rules out covariance with other factors such as "CEO becomes older, raises employee wages" or "CEO works fewer hours per week, raises employee wages".
Yeah, this definitely seems like "CEO has child, realizes children are expensive, so gives everyone a raise.... Unless it's a boy, in which case screw you, other guys".
The hard data:
The story here is that when men have children, in general, female employees wages go up, by pretty much the same amount. However, when the firstborn is a boy, they are harder on men, and a little more respectful of women.I'd personally interpret this as men becoming more respectful of women when they witness their wives undergoing childbirth. However, the more drastic effect of child gender can be seen on male employee wages. I suppose the CEO might be channeling frustration in child-rearing a boy on his male employees.