[geofft]

Yes, in the absence of strong evidence I would assume both Etsy and every other salaried company that permits offers to be negotiated is paying men and women non-equally for equal work, primarily because (as Greenspan points out) the market value of men is higher: they are receiving competing offers from places that are more blatant about paying men more (or extending fewer offers to women, or whatever). Hopefully this difference is pretty small at Etsy, but it almost certainly exists, and even a small arbitrage opportunity is economically rational to capitalize on.

I'm using "equal work" in an informal sense. (In the legal sense, yes, equal pay for equal work is the law, but also in the legal sense, you can't give an immigrant worker a green-card-path visa unless you can't find anyone in the States to do the same job, and we all know how creatively "the same job" gets defined.)

[alexashka]

In the absence of strong evidence, you're making a bunch of assumptions you mean?

In the absence of strong evidence, I personally err on the side of caution.

I don't know what these mythical places are that vastly prefer men over women - every place I've ever worked at, everyone preferred people who are good at their job and are easy to get along with - mostly the easy to get along with part by the way.

[lazyasciiart]

Yes, culture fit, or 'getting along with each other' is important. When looking for people they will get along with, most people tend to prefer to be around others who seem like themselves. Given a team of all male engineers and two candidates of equal ability and with similar personalities, one male and one female, the male candidate is more 'like' the hiring engineers which makes him seem easier to get along with. And so a company which is just hiring people who 'are good at their job and are easy to get along with' can end up with a team of men.