AI makes pay more equal for people in the same job, but it's causing the overall gender pay gap to widen in the industries that use it.
SSRN · March 18, 2026 · 6341878
The Takeaway
In AI-heavy roles, pay is fairer because performance is more objectively measurable, reducing manager bias. However, because men are adopting AI tools much more aggressively than women at the industry level, the technology is actually increasing the total pay gap between genders in high-tech sectors.
From the abstract
Does artificial intelligence narrow or widen the gender wage gap? I document that AI has two competing effects whose relative strength determines the answer. Crosssectionally, occupations with high AI exposure exhibit gender wage gaps five times smaller than low-exposure occupations (6% vs. 29%), a pattern driven by the objective measurability of output in AI-intensive jobs. However, exploiting time-varying industry-level AI adoption from Babina et al. (2024)-instrumented with university AI tale