There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap

[Kennedy 0]

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There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap
A study of single, childless urban workers between the ages of 22 and 30 found that women earned 8% more than men.

Tuesday is Equal Pay Day—so dubbed by the National Committee for Pay Equity, which represents feminist groups including the National Organization for Women, Feminist Majority, the National Council of Women's Organizations and others. The day falls on April 12 because, according to feminist logic, women have to work that far into a calendar year before they earn what men already earned the year before.

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[kallend 2,148]

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single, childless urban workers between the ages of 22 and 30

Generalizing from a rather small subset is fraught with difficulty.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[rehmwa 2]

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single, childless urban workers between the ages of 22 and 30

Generalizing from a rather small subset is fraught with difficulty.

However, comparing groups with the same life criteria is a fair comparison as a baseline.

Comparing groups with tons of 2ndary inputs and confounding factors has a lot more difficulties.

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Kennedy 0]

You're smarter than that, professor. Don't take the dumbed-down answer away from other posters. For them it really is all they have.

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In years past, feminist leaders marked the occasion by rallying outside the U.S. Capitol to decry the pernicious wage gap and call for government action to address systematic discrimination against women. This year will be relatively quiet. Perhaps feminists feel awkward protesting a liberal-dominated government—or perhaps they know that the recent economic downturn has exposed as ridiculous their claims that our economy is ruled by a sexist patriarchy.

The unemployment rate is consistently higher among men than among women. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 9.3% of men over the age of 16 are currently out of work. The figure for women is 8.3%. Unemployment fell for both sexes over the past year, but labor force participation (the percentage of working age people employed) also dropped. The participation rate fell more among men (to 70.4% today from 71.4% in March 2010) than women (to 58.3% from 58.8%). That means much of the improvement in unemployment numbers comes from discouraged workers—particularly male ones—giving up their job searches entirely.

Men have been hit harder by this recession because they tend to work in fields like construction, manufacturing and trucking, which are disproportionately affected by bad economic conditions. Women cluster in more insulated occupations, such as teaching, health care and service industries.

Yet if you can accept that the job choices of men and women lead to different unemployment rates, then you shouldn't be surprised by other differences—like differences in average pay.

Feminist hand-wringing about the wage gap relies on the assumption that the differences in average earnings stem from discrimination. Thus the mantra that women make only 77% of what men earn for equal work. But even a cursory review of the data proves this assumption false.

The Department of Labor's Time Use survey shows that full-time working women spend an average of 8.01 hours per day on the job, compared to 8.75 hours for full-time working men. One would expect that someone who works 9% more would also earn more. This one fact alone accounts for more than a third of the wage gap.

Choice of occupation also plays an important role in earnings. While feminists suggest that women are coerced into lower-paying job sectors, most women know that something else is often at work. Women gravitate toward jobs with fewer risks, more comfortable conditions, regular hours, more personal fulfillment and greater flexibility. Simply put, many women—not all, but enough to have a big impact on the statistics—are willing to trade higher pay for other desirable job characteristics.

Men, by contrast, often take on jobs that involve physical labor, outdoor work, overnight shifts and dangerous conditions (which is also why men suffer the overwhelming majority of injuries and deaths at the workplace). They put up with these unpleasant factors so that they can earn more.

Recent studies have shown that the wage gap shrinks—or even reverses—when relevant factors are taken into account and comparisons are made between men and women in similar circumstances. In a 2010 study of single, childless urban workers between the ages of 22 and 30, the research firm Reach Advisors found that women earned an average of 8% more than their male counterparts. Given that women are outpacing men in educational attainment, and that our economy is increasingly geared toward knowledge-based jobs, it makes sense that women's earnings are going up compared to men's.

Should we celebrate the closing of the wage gap? Certainly it's good news that women are increasingly productive workers, but women whose husbands and sons are out of work or under-employed are likely to have a different perspective. After all, many American women wish they could work less, and that they weren't the primary earners for their families.

Few Americans see the economy as a battle between the sexes. They want opportunity to abound so that men and women can find satisfying work situations that meet their unique needs. That—not a day dedicated to manufactured feminist grievances—would be something to celebrate.

To address your concern, the article is about how different measures in the workforce affect different subsets. Certain people liek to say women make less than men. The problem si they don't compare similar positions, length of service, and other factors. The bigger problem is they don't address common choice of career (teachers and other safe/predictable jobs making less than more dangerous/arduous and shift jobs).

If women really are discriminated against and do make less than men because of sexism, then why are men affected much more negatively during recessions and depressions? Hmm, could be because the sexism complaint is nonsense, there is no real disparity among similarly situated men and women, and there are a lot of factors that do affect wages but sex isn't one of them.

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[Kennedy 0]

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Generalizing from a rather small subset is fraught with difficulty.

Unless it's a study implying Republicans are racists, and then 186 imbecilies are enough to paint (A) Mississippi republicans, (B) the entire state of Mississippi, or (C) all Republicans as a bunch of bigots.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
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[Amazon 7]

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Generalizing from a rather small subset is fraught with difficulty.

Unless it's a study implying Republicans are racists, and then 186 imbecilies are enough to paint (A) Mississippi republicans, (B) the entire state of Mississippi, or (C) all Republicans as a bunch of bigots.

Do you think if you increased the numbers across all rePUBIClowns you would get a very low number that think its wrong???

[Kennedy 0]

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Generalizing from a rather small subset is fraught with difficulty.

Unless it's a study implying Republicans are racists, and then 186 imbecilies are enough to paint (A) Mississippi republicans, (B) the entire state of Mississippi, or (C) all Republicans as a bunch of bigots.

Do you think if you increased the numbers across all rePUBIClowns you would get a very low number that think its wrong???

While I can't say anything for certain about this imaginary group you keep talking about called the rePUBIClowns, I can say with some certainty that if one were to poll registered Republicans nationwide, you would not find anything remotely resembling the numbers reported in the Mississippi poll. (that means, yes, the number would be lower) I can also say that if they were to Poll Democrats is Mississippi, the number opposed to inter-racial marriage would be higher than Democrats nationwide as well.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
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[Amazon 7]

Why Kennedy my dear... you have not kept up have you...

Republicans.. while they still do exist in some numbers.. have given over their party to those who wish to legislate all things MORAL... the so called Moral Majority... those "values voters" who so permeate the party and will vote for ANY rePUBIClown who claims he is for that elusive to them... Family Values. It is elusive since many thousands of said Family Values politicians in the rePUBIClown wing of the party have failed so miserably at their own family values.

Those politicians and their constituents that wish to legislate anything to do with sex and morality... are the primary members of that rather large subset of your party. They are the least likely people in the world to "live and let live" They are also the ones who are usually at the forefront clamoring for the next crusade against other fundies... who do not believe the way they do and would wish to eradicate them from their midst as well as those fundies of other religions on the other side of the world..

Now if we could just get all of them to sign up for a MOST EXCELLENT Crusade on the other side of the world... what a wonderful contry this might be again.

[pirana 0]

Couple thoughts on this:

1 - If they look into small enough segments they will probably find enough sub-sub-subcategories to support either view. It would not be deceiving to draw conclusions for that specific subcategory; but it would be to use that subcategory to blast out a headline that gender pay inequity does not exist.

2 - The only meaningful studies would be ones that compare a statistically valid sample of people doing the same job, in the same region, and adjusted for hours worked.

3 - Discrimination by types of jobs but not by gender is a separate but related issue. Professions typically made up largely of women may pay less, but if both sexes make the same then the gap is attributable directly to the profession chosen - and only indirectly to the notion that women's labor is of less value.

4 - Men are more impacted by a weak economy simply because more of them hold jobs.

5 - Lastly; my contribution towards keeping this in SC:

Q. - Why is housecleaning mostly done by the female in the husehold?

A. - Because it's women's work.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[weekender 0]

Seems pretty simple to me. A for profit organization exist for profit. They would not purposely pay someone, with all things equal, more than another just because of his sex or race. As a rule, employers are always looking for a way to pay people less not more. Sure there will be some sexist, racist outliers but I am old enough to know that as a general rule, employers try to find the cheapest way to get things done. Not the most expensive.

"The point is, I'm weird, but I never felt weird."
John Frusciante

[Kennedy 0]

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Why Kennedy my dear... you have not kept up have you...

You just reminded me of the best movie line of all time. Rhett Butler: "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." Truthfully, it's more important to follow his other best line: "you should be kissed. And often. By someone who knows how."

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Republicans.. while they still do exist in some numbers.. have given over their party to those who wish to legislate all things MORAL... the so called Moral Majority... those "values voters" who so permeate the party and will vote for ANY rePUBIClown who claims he is for that elusive to them... Family Values. It is elusive since many thousands of said Family Values politicians in the rePUBIClown wing of the party have failed so miserably at their own family values.

If we denounced every politician who failed to live up to his stated positions (and we should) then nearly all politicians would fail, including the loudest and longest serving Democrats and Republicans.

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Those politicians and their constituents that wish to legislate anything to do with sex and morality... are the primary members of that rather large subset of your party. They are the least likely people in the world to "live and let live" They are also the ones who are usually at the forefront clamoring for the next crusade against other fundies... who do not believe the way they do and would wish to eradicate them from their midst as well as those fundies of other religions on the other side of the world.

For the umpteenth time, it's not "my party". And for the live and let live, there are plenty of fanatics in both parties who refuse to live by that idea. Crusading is not limited to shooting wars in other lands, after all.

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Now if we could just get all of them to sign up for a MOST EXCELLENT Crusade on the other side of the world... what a wonderful contry this might be again.

Ah, the old "if only we could dump them all on an island far far away" solution for anyone we disagree with...
Not my favorite, but if you want to be lumped in with people who believe in it, that's your poor choice of company.

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[Trafficdiver 8]

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Why Kennedy my dear... you have not kept up have you...

the so called Moral Majority...

The Moral Majority dissolved in the late 80's.