Sexual harassment is not all bad

To all the readers who have been complaining that The Careerist gets too uptight (click here and here) about gender discrimination, I'm ready to offer you a truce. On the sexual harassment front, at least, I'm now holding my fire.

Why? Well, it seems that I've been overlooking the role of the free market system, and how that creates an equilibrium of sorts between the harasser and harassee.

Here's what Vanderbilt University law and economics professor Joni Hersch writes in the American Economic Review:

Workers receive a wage premium for exposure to the risk of sexual harassment in much the same way that workers receive a wage premium for the risk of fatality or injury.

In other words, putting up with letches should entitle you to extra battle pay. "These compensating differentials arise because sexual harassment is so offensive," wrote Hersch in an email to me. "The only other work-related risks that receive hazard pay are for risk of fatality or injury. If people did not universally despise sexual harassment, there would be no extra compensation."

Using complaints to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Hersch looked at the relationship between sexual harassment and compensation. Even when education and occupation are taken into account, women who work in jobs where there's an "average probability of sexual harassment" are paid 25 cents per hour more than women who don't have that hassle, finds Hersch.

Wow-imagine getting extra comp for smirks, propositions, and other offensive acts! That must really add up if your workplace is full of neanderthals.

All great stuff, but I'm a bit disturbed by this finding: Men in jobs with high risk of sexual harassment get twice as much as women in similar situations, making on average 50 cents an hour more. Even on this front, men get more than women! How sad is that?

"Because sexual harassment of women is so pervasive, there aren't a whole lot of jobs where women can be assured they will not be at risk of being sexually harassed," explains Hersch. "So firms don't have to pay as high a premium to attract women to sexually harassing workplaces as they do to attract men."

In any case, though, I doubt there's as much sexual harassment in the legal sector as there is in other sectors. (From 2000 to 2010, Hersch says there were 305 EEOC complaints in the legal sector out of "the 52,812 sexual harassment charges with industry code reported.") And given how careful Big Law is, I'd bet the opportunities for trading harassment for cash is even lower among the Am Law 200 firms.

But don't let that discourage you if you're looking for a pay bump. May I suggest trying your luck at a more off-the-beaten-track firm? Better yet, how about applying for an in-house job at the the National Restaurant Association?

This article first appeared on The Careerist, a blog by the American Lawyer Media Group. Click here to follow Vivia Chen on Twitter.