Why Don't Females Have to Pay As Much As Males for Car Insurance?
Car insurance rates for men and women often differ markedly. While discrimination against a particular group based on sex is forbidden in many aspects of American life, in the insurance industry this type of profiling is common practice. Insurance companies justify this bias based on the financial statistics of actual claims paid, rather than ascribing it to any type of true discrimination.
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Insurance Rate Calculations
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Insurance companies set rates based on measured statistical risks. In order to remain financially viable, companies must set the highest rates for groups that traditionally cost them the most money. Factors that an insurance company may use to construct a rate quotation include gender, driving experience, age, education and marital status.
Men Have Higher Fatality Rates
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According to a Carnegie Mellon risk analysis study in 2007, men have a 77-percent higher fatality rate in accidents as opposed to women. Estimated fatalities per 100 million trips were 14.61 for men and 6.53 for women. Between 1999 and 2005, the total number of fatalities for women was 82,371 versus 175,094 for men. Even after considering other factors, the fatality rate for men is much higher than for women. A higher fatality rate translates into higher losses for insurance companies, so rates for men are raised correspondingly.
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Males Drive More Miles
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More males than females hold jobs, and as a result more males than females commute to work. In driving more miles, males are on the road more often, making them statistically more liable to be involved in accidents or moving violations.
Males Tend to Take More Risks
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On a statistical basis men are more likely to engage in riskier driving behaviors, such as speeding, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol or failing to wear a seat belt. In addition to increasing the chances of an accident, they also increase the severity of the incident. Mathematically speaking, more severe accidents translate into larger insurance claims payouts.
Men Receive More Moving Violations
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Whether as a result of driving more miles, engaging in riskier behaviors or other factors, Department of Transportation numbers conclusively demonstrate that men receive more moving violations than women. Insurance companies use these numbers as statistical support that rates for men should be higher than those for women.
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References
- Photo Credit sicherheitsgurt image by fuxart from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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There is also the factor of the cost of the car-men buy more expensive cars than women on average and pay out is high-which is probably the real reason-i personally think that given the major differences in driving times and accidents that women are just as likely if not more so -i have actually been hit multiple times by a cars on a bicycle-of those times all but one were women-and the one male was an elderly man well and had traveled a long distance. All the women drivers failed to look or notice. I bet if you took commute times were limited to short distances for comparison you would get about the same.
