Domingo-Cabarrubias 87 enjoying a 13 percent advantage over women in BPO firms. The simple regression analysis shows thatbeing male or female could explain 5 percent of the variation pay. This means that 95 percent of variations in basic pay could be explained by oter factors. Being female in a Philippine BPO means a lower wage profile, with a significantly negative coefficient, all other factors equal” (45). This discrepancy was explained by HR managers of BPO firms as due to the fact that most males have technical or engineering jobs. These positions are paid higher. Females are mostly sales or customer service representatives, who are paid lower. Because of this, Amante commented that Philippine BPO firms need to seriously examine the congruence of non-discrimination policy and practice, as far as pay is concerned. Amante’s findings are consistent with that of Belt et al. (2002) in European call centers, where salaries were significantly higher in the computer services call centers (for the sales and technical support roles) – where the proportion of male workers was the highest. The study revealed that men vastly outnumbered women in the specialised technical support roles in the computer service call centers such as on software help-desks, and women tended to be concentrated on the whole in the customer service roles. In addition, the work was least routinized, and monitoring and control practices least stringently used in the technical support roles in the computer sevices call centers, where males made up majority of employees. The gender composition of the workforce is an important point to consider in discussing the impact of BPO work. As Belt et al. asserted, employers do not view women and men workers as undifferentiated and substitutable groups. Male and female labour are viewed differently and used differently by employers and managers (Bradley 1986 in Belt et al. 2002). It is important to note that “although women make up the majority of employees in general, they do not dominate employment in all sectors and across all task areas” (24). Other gender concerns were succinctly pointed out by a female BPO employee interviewed by Amante (2008): Most call center agents are women. They leave for work late at