Are You Suffering From Low T?

Do you feel tired and discouraged when you look at your paycheck? Do you struggle to afford the same lifestyle as your male colleagues, despite identical qualifications? Have you noticed a persistent gap between your effort and your reward—a kind of invisible ceiling that no one will acknowledge out loud?

You may be suffering from Low T—not the low level of testosterone that enrages Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but a problem with our macroeconomic metabolism: Low Total Compensation Syndrome.

Check your symptoms:

• Chronic underpayment, often undetected for years
• Reduced retirement savings, despite decades of contributions
• Unexplained exhaustion from performing emotional labor that’s not reflected in your salary
• Difficulty “leaning in” due to structural forces your wellness app cannot fix
• A nagging sense that your work is valued differently when performed by someone who resembles the people who set the pay scales

If you experience three or more of these symptoms, talk to your employer—or better yet, your union representative.

The science is clear.

Testosterone deficiencies are not the crisis they're often portrayed to be—even for soldiers.

Low total compensation, on the other hand, is widespread. It affects people in the boardroom and the break room, in the hospital ward and the classroom. It is found at elevated rates among women, especially women of color, single mothers, and anyone whose reproductive choices are visible to Human Resources.

Researchers believe that the Low T described here is caused by a complex interaction of historical factors, institutional inertia, and the widespread societal belief that care—for children, for patients, for aging parents, for colleagues in emotional distress—is not really work.

Left untreated, Low T can result in:

• Lifetime earnings losses of $400,000 or more
• Retirement poverty
• A persistent condition known clinically as doing more for less while being told to be grateful

What can you do?

Unfortunately, Low T cannot be treated with medication. Do not apply AndroGel. It will not help. The underlying cause of Low T is not hormonal. It is not a personal deficiency. It cannot be corrected by negotiating more assertively, dressing more strategically, or finding a mentor who will explain the culture to you over coffee you were not offered.

Low T is a systemic condition requiring systemic treatment: pay transparency legislation, universal care infrastructure, the revaluation of feminized occupations, and the radical idea that the market price of labor is kept artificially low.

Ask your senator if structural reform is right for you.

Side effects of treatment may include corporate discomfort, lobbying activity, and op-eds in the Wall Street Journal about the death of meritocracy. 

Nancy Folbre is a professor emerita of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research explores the interface between political economy and feminist theory.