Employment & Labor Insider

According to a recent study, women pay 20 percent more than men in bank fees and penalties. In 2018, women paid an average of $214, while men paid an average of only $182.

Wow. This is outrageous. I had no idea that the financial industry engaged in such blatant discrimination against women!

Uh, never mind.

First, the study, conducted by Stash, looked only at the habits of users of the Stash app. 

(According to the Apple App Store, "Stash is a personal finance, banking, and investing app that helps 3 million+ Americans save and invest. Together, Stashers have set aside over $1.9 billion.")

Second, women pay more in fees and penalties apparently because they are overdrawn more than men are. 

The CEO of Stash thinks he knows why women -- only on average, mind you -- are more likely than men to be overdrawn: The gender pay gap, of course! The CEO was quoted in the Daily Mail (which was quoting from an interview he gave CBS) as saying,

Financial disparities like these amongst men and women impact nearly every part of a woman's financial life—it doesn't start and end with the pay gap, but her retirement savings and even, as we're seeing now, her likelihood to get hit with predatory banking fees,' . . . He noted that women make about 20 percent less than men on average and would therefore have less money in their bank accounts, meaning they're more likely to overdraw their accounts and incur penalties. 'While there's been a narrowing of the gender pay gap in recent years, women are still earning 85% of what men earn.' 

Hmm. I'm not sure the Stash study actually made any scientific effort to explain the "gender overdraft gap." (Did Stash conduct a multiple regression analysis?) But I guess I should be grateful that the CEO didn't blame the pay gap -- and "the gender overdraft gap" -- on sex discrimination by employers. At least, not directly.