Up to 40% of the gender wage gap is attributable to occupational segregation, with women concentrated in lower-paying, less-skilled occupations. One solution that has caught on among American policy makers and feminist activists is promising a new technology that could help close the gap: artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence as a potential solution for decreasing the gender wage gap seemed like an idea too farfetched for many employers just a decade ago; but now it’s becoming increasingly more prevalent in the workplace and government policy makers are taking notice of this possibility. Although AI is still developing, predictions suggest that it will be able to identify how individuals within an organization are performing their work and then compensate them accordingly.
This would have the biggest impact on industries where gender and seniority are already at a premium; namely fields such as medicine, science, engineering, and even law. Even though a variety of machine learning technologies are available to guide this type of decision-making process, artificial intelligence could provide an unprecedented level of precision that could help close the wage gap.
The Case for AI in the Workplace
Many U.S. companies taking advantage of this concept are exploring specific aspects of artificial intelligence that can help them make decisions with regards to the compensation of workers. Empirical evidence has shown that men and women are being paid nearly identical salaries in sales positions within both large and small enterprises; as such, it’s believed that a system using artificial intelligence would be able to help reduce the gender wage gap. The decision algorithms that AI systems use would first demonstrate how well an individual is performing based on performance indicators such as hours and quality, then assign a grade to each worker.
Each of those grades would then enable the system to determine how much to pay each employee based on their level of experience, the gender gap within the industry, and other key factors. The resulting wage could then be automated and sent to an employee’s employer directly.
While more research is needed into the potential benefits for companies of implementing this type of decision-making system, there are some large employers that are already taking advantage of these breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. The U.S. Department of State recently launched a program that uses a combination of AI and human analysts to review data regarding benefits and wages.
Similar programs are being tested in Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands. The use of artificial intelligence to analyze large amounts of data is becoming commonplace; it’s likely that this technology could be used in other fields in the near future to help diversify workplaces as well as close the gender wage gap.
| Homepage | Click Hear |
