Gender Wage Gap? Please.

Every once in a while, I hear an argument spread, and co-signed, that irritates my very last nerve. This CRAP about women still earning 70 cents to the male dollar. I'm SO sick and tired of this FRAUDULENT stat and the people who mindlessly co-sign it without putting ANY kind of thought into the validity of the stat. So many men seem too afraid, or too dumb, to refute it for fear that they might be called a chauvinist. Thats lame. Dont just agree with something simply b/c someone tells it to you or simply b/c its the party line. We're better than that. Lets put a little common sense to this stat.

"A study of the gender wage gap conducted by economist June O' Neill, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, found that women earn 98 percent of what men do when controlled for experience, education, and number of years on the job."  -- Gender Wage Gap Is Feminist Fiction

Simply put, women are more likely to take lower paying jobs than men. An example is that men are more likely to take higher risk jobs (i.e. fire fighter) and women are more likely to take lower risk (i.e. secretarial). These factors have such an effect on this 70 cent stat that its disingenuous to not mention it in lieu of presenting the stat itself. There's maternity leave, there's the fact that women are more likely to be stay-at-home parents, and many seem to be of the opinion that women are less likely to ask for/demand a raise. Knowing this, how can people WILLINGLY continue to cosign this junk stat? Personally, I'd be willing to bet that, if it were possible to normalize these factors into the equation, women would be doing QUITE WELL in this comparison.

"The "wage gap" is not so much about employers discriminating against women as about women making discriminating choices in the labor market." -- The Wage Gap Myth

 

What do YOU believe?