Fun with statistics: women’s wages
I’ve heard for years, perhaps even decades, that the oft-quoted statistic about women’s wages being so much lower than men’s as a result of wage discrimination is a myth, an artifact of other factors than discrimination. So this sort of article should be a big ho-hum to most people:
The supposed pay gap appears when marriage and children enter the picture. Child care takes mothers out of the labor market, so when they return they have less work experience than similarly-aged males. Many working mothers seek jobs that provide greater flexibility, such as telecommuting or flexible hours. Not all jobs can be flexible, and all other things being equal, those which are will pay less than those that do not.
Education also matters. Even within groups with the same educational attainment, women often choose fields of study, such as sociology, liberal arts or psychology, that pay less in the labor market. Men are more likely to major in finance, accounting or engineering. And as the American Association of University Women reports, men are four times more likely to bargain over salaries once they enter the job market.
Risk is another factor. Nearly all the most dangerous occupations, such as loggers or iron workers, are majority male and 92% of work-related deaths in 2012 were to men…
While the BLS reports that full-time female workers earned 81% of full-time males, that is very different than saying that women earned 81% of what men earned for doing the same jobs, while working the same hours, with the same level of risk, with the same educational background and the same years of continuous, uninterrupted work experience, and assuming no gender differences in family roles like child care. In a more comprehensive study that controlled for most of these relevant variables simultaneously””such as that from economists June and Dave O’Neill for the American Enterprise Institute in 2012””nearly all of the 23% raw gender pay gap…can be attributed to factors other than discrimination. The O’Neills conclude that, “labor market discrimination is unlikely to account for more than 5% but may not be present at all.”
But I would imagine that if you were to poll most people, they might be aware of the “wage gap” but unaware of what accounts for almost all of it. That’s what makes it so easy for politicians to use misleading statistics for political purposes.
And the reason we’re talking about this at all today is that, not only is it “Equal Pay Day” but, sure enough, Obama and the Democrats are planning for the “women make 77 cents to the male dollar” issue to be an important part of their 2014 campaign message.
“Gender wage gap at the White House: Female staffers are paid only 88 cents for every dollar paid to men”
Ah, the utter hypocrisy.
“One potential challenge for the President’s prospective populist push is his own family’s affluence. Despite the President’s public lowering of his own salary, the Obamas’ tax returns show a family whose incomes would routinely place them in the highest bracket, with lucrative income streams outside of the White House. Last year, however, the Obama family paid an effective tax rate of only 18 percent.”
Nor is it just Obama’s WH, as of May of 2012;
“A new survey of the pay of staffers of Senate Democrats shows that they too are paying their workers less than they pay men.
The Free Beacon looked into the pay of Senate staffers and found that 37 Democrats staffers pay females in their offices less than they pay male employees.”
Hypocrisy has become a litmus test for democrats.
It’s also setting the stage for The Entitlement Generation to demand the same pay as more experienced, more skilled employees, because “IT’S NOT FAIR!!!!!!” that someone gets paid for than they do.
I honestly don’t know why I wasted 25 years working hard. It’s not going matter one iota in the end. We’re all going to be ruined, hungry and broke.
And then there’s this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/03/americas-workers-stressed-out-overwhelmed-totally-exhausted/284615/
Well, when I watch TV these days, even the news, it seems that all of the positions of power are occupied by women.
Politicians, police chiefs, fire chiefs, CEOs, Commandos, fighter pilots seem to be all women; at least in the fantasy world, but to an increasing extent in the real world.
So, how could there be pay inequality? Don’t these powerful women look out for their sisters? Dare I say the “Old Sister network”?
Maybe when you factor in maternity leave, family leave, etc., women are paid equally for the time actually devoted to the job. Or as some have reported, corporations–buy not necessarily government entities–are wary of promoting women to essential positions given their other focus.
In real life, my younger daughter holds an executive position, but I have worried about her job because of all of the work time she has missed. When my granddaughter was diagnosed with leukemia, she moved into her hospital room for three months. (Dad would have shared more of the burden, but Mother had to be there, she just had to because she was the Mother and irreplaceable.) She missed a lot of time at work, although she did a lot on the phone and computer. Her wonderful staff covered. Her job was safe; either because she is too valuable, or because it would have been too messy to replace her. It probably helps that she does work for a government entity. We will never know. She still misses more work due to family obligations than I would ever have been comfortable with.
Could that sort of thing on a macro scale explain some of the income inequity?
The 77 Cents meme gets trotted out every year and it is debunked every year.
Propaganda works: They people who want to believe it will, as will the uniformed.
Ha!
Just as I meant to type corporations–but not necessarily government entities–; I know that dbp meant the uninformed and not the uniformed.
Seems no matter how much I think I am I proof reading before hitting submit, I still go awry. I hope it is my innate carelessness–which I long ago accepted– and not age related.
Ha! Not my only mistake. They people should have been the people. No matter how carefully I read before posting, I always see the mistakes only once it is too late.
If women really earned only 77 cents for each dollar men earned, any smart businessperson would fire all the men and hire women. This would instantly reduce personnel expenses by 23%.
The big lie concept is alive and well among Democrats aided by the corrupt media.
Po’wittle discwimnated against goils!! Wictims… Dat’s whut they is. Half a century of women’s wib and the Dems still think you goils is dumb as stones and twice as gullible. How’bout you wittle dears come on over to conservatism and be respected as adults with bwains, huh?
Just sayin’….
From the beginning
the Universe knew
what we are thinking
is a point of view.
It isn’t really so much “Equal Pay Day,” (as made evident by their own flagrant disparity for 5 years, but one more way of conditioning the sheep to het used to him going around congress.
It’s becoming so constant and flagrant, many have forgotten that legally, it’s only congress that makes the laws and levies taxes.
I got a lame-brained letter from a local pinko politician about the “77 cents to the dollar” situation.
I immediately thought, “Shoot, they were telling us that THIRTY YEARS AGO. So whatever it is they’ve ‘done’ ain’t working, is it?”
Snort.
Same pay for the same job (in all respects); also, we really do need to up our game in asking for more money.
Writers under the thrall of the Leftist publishing regime, get paid 6 cents per word.
The royalty system of kindle and new publishing methods, are significantly different than the advance payment methods of Legacy houses.
The problem with Western civilization is that the caner and AIDS of the LEft refuses to modernize and adapt, so people think the economic problems are due to inequality. No, it’s due to Leftist evil.
This report is great. In fact, it’s devastating:
http://www.consad.com/content/reports/Gender%20Wage%20Gap%20Final%20Report.pdf
“An Analysis of Reasons for the Disparity in Wages Between Men and Women”
From the Foreward:
“…However, despite these gains the raw wage gap continues to be used in misleading ways to advance public policy agendas without fully explaining the reasons behind the gap.
…thereby leave an adjusted gender wage gap that is between 4.8 and 7.1 percent.
…Research also suggests that differences not incorporated into the model due to data limitations may account for part of the remaining gap.”
What’s so great & devastating about it? It’s a report that the Labor Dept contracted for. And the Foreward is written by a Labor Dept. Official.
30 years ago I was getting paid less than my male coworkers for the same job. So I quit, left the industry, & took a commission-only job. Problem solved.
A civilization’s population regrowth rate will fail to replace the casualties in peace time, if certain modifications are made to the gender roles.
Of course, that is a long term issue. Most people can’t think past the number 2 in scale order effects.
This is a timely discussion for me. I’m a woman in a tech career in a company where the others who do my job are mostly men. I recently took over my boss’s job when he moved on to another project. I estimate that he makes at least twice what I do. But, in my time with the company, I’ve missed at least 16 weeks on disability for several surgeries, miscarriages and maternity leave. He can just pick up and fly somewhere at a moment’s notice and I can’t. I avoid travel and work from home. I work through lunch and leave early to attend my son’s baseball games. So to the company, he’s worth more than I am. I’m OK with that because it’s a sacrifice I made consciously and willingly to have my son. I think many of the women complaining want to have their cake and eat it too.
Narrative mode means a choice of preferred truth.