The time penalty meets the computer wage premium: analysing gender differences in Austria using survey data from the “Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies” (PIAAC) 2011/2012

This article examines the relationship between different types of ICT use, flexibility and wages using Austrian survey data from 2011/2012, employing quantile regression to analyze gender differences across the wage distribution. Distinguishing between “techy” and “operational” computer tasks and using a multidimensional flexibility indicator, the analysis reveals that women receive premiums for both techy and operational computer use across most wage levels whereas men generally do not. However, greater flexibility is associated with a reduced operational computer wage premium for low-wage women, while higher-earning operational men benefit. The findings suggest that mechanisms beyond productivity, such as social evaluation processes and different concepts of flexibility, may influence how computer use is associated with wages.