The Truth Behind the Gender Pay Gap | IEA Future Thought Leaders

Reem Ibrahim delivered a lecture on the economics of discrimination at the Institute of Economic Affairs' undergraduate Future Thought Leaders Programme.

She argued that wages must be decided by supply and demand, and that the gender pay gap can mostly be explained by motherhood. As argued by Gary Becker, competitive markets have a tendency to be anti-discriminatory, and firms that choose to discriminate in their hiring processes bear a cost.

Reem argued that the recent drive towards allowing the value of work to be decided by courts, and not by the market (as was the case with Birmingham City Council and Next), is damaging and immoral.