Sex Discrimination in Restaurant Hiring: An Audit Study

This paper reports on a small-scale audit study that investigates sex discrimination in restaurant hiring. Comparably matched pairs of men and women applied for jobs as waiters and waitresses at 65 restaurants in Philadelphia. The 130 applications led to 54 interviews and 39 job offers. The results provide statistically significant evidence of sex discrimination against women in high-price restaurants. In high-price restaurants, job applications from women had an estimated probability of receiving a job offer that was lower by about .5, and an estimated probability of receiving an interview that was lower by about .4. These hiring patterns appear to have implications for sex differences in earnings, as informal survey evidence indicates that earnings are higher in high-price restaurants.

^*Published: Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 111, no. 3 (August 1996): 915-941.

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