Bribing Pakistani bosses? Study finds minor wage subsidies cause major spikes in female hiring

Pakistan faces a massive economic puzzle. While the global average for women's labor force participation sits around 50%, in Pakistan, it is a dismal 24.3%, compared to a staggering 80.3% for men.

​For decades, policymakers have tried to fix this by focusing on the supply side: educating women, improving public transport, or offering childcare. But a groundbreaking new study flips the script and asks a harder question: What if the real bottleneck is the boss?

Employers often hesitate to hire women due to expected organizational "costs"—like building separate bathrooms, revising HR processes, or dealing with societal norms—or simply due to plain old bias. Researching wage subsidies—essentially paying an employer to take a chance on a female hire—is a radical but necessary way to test if financial incentives can break through these "demand-side" walls and force companies to change their hiring habits.

​To find out, World Bank researchers teamed up with Rozee.pk, Pakistan’s largest job portal, to run a massive experiment on 1,227 firms.

​The Experiment
​The researchers approached firms posting entry-level and mid-level professional jobs and offered them a deal: a six-month wage subsidy if they hired a qualified woman instead of a man. But rather than just handing out a flat rate, they made the hiring managers "bid" on the absolute minimum subsidy they would need to make the hire.
​The results were eye-opening.

​The Findings
​Bias is cheaper than you think: Managers didn't need the government to pay the entire salary. On average, a mere 15% wage subsidy was enough to offset their hesitation and equalize their hiring choices.

​The cash works: Overall, the simple offer of this temporary subsidy caused a 10.7 percentage point surge in the likelihood of a firm hiring a woman.
​Cracking the "Boys' Club": The most dramatic results came from historically male-only companies. For firms that previously had zero female employees, the subsidy boosted female hiring by a massive 17 percentage points. The cash acted as an insurance policy, convincing hesitant managers to finally take the leap and realize the benefits of a diverse workforce.

​Better pay and real contracts: Firms actually passed some of that free cash onto the women. Hired candidates saw a 7.4% bump in their starting salaries and were more likely to be given a formal employment contract.

​The Long-Term Shockwave
​The best part of the study is what happened after the money ran out. This wasn't just a short-term cash grab.
​When researchers checked back 18 months later—long after the six-month subsidy had ended—treated firms were 13 percentage points more likely to still have a woman working in that specific role.
​Even better, the experiment actually shifted corporate culture. After experiencing female talent firsthand, these companies were 5.5 percentage points less likely to explicitly state a "male preference" in their future job postings.
​By temporarily paying bosses to overcome their own biases, the experiment proved that a small financial nudge today can permanently open the door for the women of tomorrow.