Men Get Paid More on eBay

 

research paper published by the University of Tel Aviv claims that women make less money when selling the same products as men on eBay. The study  examined  420 products on eBay's US website  between 2009 and 2012. When selling new items, women, on average,  received about 80 cents less than men. The e-commerce giant did not comment on the results as the survey was done by a third party.

eBay does not require a seller or a buyer to state their gender. The students who carried out the research work identified men and women by looking at their usernames.

While women may earn less on eBay they have a better reputation as sellers than men. The report found out that women tend to buy things from other women because their product descriptions and comments are more accurate.

The report said that buyers were not discriminating on purpose. Most of them who were interviewed later , said that they did not think gender was an issue on eBay.  They only cared about the price, quality and the description of an item.

 

 

Those who conducted the study said that gender discrimination did not surprise them but they were astonished at how much the difference between men and women was.

 

 

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Words

  • accurate = exact, in detail
  • astonished = surprised
  • claim = to say that something is true
  • conduct = carry out, do
  • description = here: a short text that tells you what a product is like
  • discriminate = to treat a person differently because they are of a different race or religion , or because they are a man or a woman
  • e-commerce = buying and selling products on the internet
  • examine = look at very closely
  • gender = if you are a man or a woman
  • issue = problem
  • publish = show to the media and the public
  • on average = normally
  • on purpose = without knowing it; not wanting to
  • receive = get
  • reputation = the opinion that people have about someone , and the way they admire or respect a person
  • require = need to
  • research = to study a subject very carefully in order to find out new facts about it
  • state = here: give information about something
  • survey = to examine things by asking people questions
  • tend to = to be likely to do something
  • username = the name that you use to log in to a website