They must work in an environment that does not have competitive labor markets with profit maximizing firms else the firm hiring the man could increase its profits by firing him and hiring the woman.
In the riddle’s world, there are indeed competitive labor markets. The firm would hire the woman if they could. It turns out they can’t, because of the mystery phenomenon.
That would be true in a perfectly rational, globally-optimized company with perfect visibility into facts.
Consider that there is no statement about the reviews or raises they receive. It is very possible for identical work output to receive different reviews and rewards based on personal traits and relationships. Setting aside gender, taller people also make more and receive higher ratings.
So while you’re 100% correct that it should work that way, it is entirely possible that in a local situation it does not work that way. One hypothesis might be that management is predominantly male, and faced with identical work output, conscious or unconscious bias leads them to pay the man more.
I’m not sure what they author is going for here, but I can say from a lot of firsthand experience that labor markets are anything by rational. So I’d expect the result to rest on irrationality.
They must work in an environment that does not have competitive labor markets with profit maximizing firms else the firm hiring the man could increase its profits by firing him and hiring the woman.
In the riddle’s world, there are indeed competitive labor markets. The firm would hire the woman if they could. It turns out they can’t, because of the mystery phenomenon.
That would be true in a perfectly rational, globally-optimized company with perfect visibility into facts.
Consider that there is no statement about the reviews or raises they receive. It is very possible for identical work output to receive different reviews and rewards based on personal traits and relationships. Setting aside gender, taller people also make more and receive higher ratings.
So while you’re 100% correct that it should work that way, it is entirely possible that in a local situation it does not work that way. One hypothesis might be that management is predominantly male, and faced with identical work output, conscious or unconscious bias leads them to pay the man more.
I’m not sure what they author is going for here, but I can say from a lot of firsthand experience that labor markets are anything by rational. So I’d expect the result to rest on irrationality.