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President Obama highlighted the gender gap in pay rates, bringing up the fact that women make, on average, 77 cents to every dollar a man makes. The president stated that this was an “embarrassment in America.” As the old adage goes, people who live in glass houses–or is it White Houses?
Apparently, the White House staff is no exception to the gender trends, as female White House staff members make 88 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earn. What it boils down to is yet another pissing contest between the left and right. Republicans are eager to paint the Democrats and the current administration in a negative light, while Democrats are after the same thing where Republicans are concerned. Sadly, those who really lose in this particularly grueling battle are the women.
We can debate and try to explain any societal issue until the inequality makes perfect sense. According to the New York Times:
“Women still tend to have lower pay grades than men do, because the men, on average, have more years of experience.”
Well, yeah, I guess that’s true, because until WWII, women remained inside the kitchen, casually popping Quaaludes and tending to their husband’s needs. So, yes, it does stand to reason that men have more years of experience on the whole, because they were never marginalized.
It’s like when you respond to an ad for help needed at a coffee shop, but the small print demands barista experience. Right, okay, so I’m trying to be a barista, but you won’t let me be one because I’ve never been one before? It’s the whole “you need credit to build credit” argument. Well, shit.
I guess the point remains that any attention drawn to wage equality is positive, especially since there are people in the country who are completely oblivious to the fact that there is a gap in pay rates. But, the focus should remain on those who are really losing here: the women working their asses off for less pay, even though they do the same work for less recognition. Go home, politicians, you’re drunk.
[via The New York Times]
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kelseyriot
Whiskey, wine, and 8-5 (at least until August). Then, attempting to get my MSW from the University of Pennsylvania and transform into an adult.
@kelseyacraig
@kelseyacraig
This opinion piece was on wsj regarding this subject.
http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303532704579483752909957472?mg=reno64-wsj
It’s funny that that was published in the op ed section LOL
It’s funny that you don’t argue with the logic or facts contained therein, but choose to point out what section it was published instead.
The wage gap of 77 cents on the dollar is “all full time worker, on average by gender”.
The first problem with this is, men on average work more hours than women. Men are much more likely to work > 40 hours per week, and much less likely to be in the 35-39 hour/week “full time” category.
So they’re getting more pay for more hours… and that accounts for about 5-6 cents of the discrepancy.
Second, this ignores jobs. A guy cleaning septic tanks 40 hours a week, and a woman answering phones 40 hours a week don’t have the same hazards, and the pay reflects this. For low-skill high risk jobs, there is a gender difference. But I don’t see the women lining up to work on oil derricks, or crime scene cleanup crews at equal numbers.
This accounts for most of the rest.
If your goal is to make the 77 cents stat go away you have two choices.
1) All jobs should pay the exact same regardless of the job or hours worked… and no septic tank will ever be cleaned again.
2) Women need to be FORCED into the higher paying, and more dangerous jobs, and FORCED to work more hours.
Otherwise you’re not working with the 77 cent stat with your “fix”. You’re working to re-pass the 1963 Equal Pay Act… which passed in 1963.
If we re-pass an existing law without changes… does that change anything?
It’s more likely that the gap is due to the fact that women are harder to fire in the long run and employers have to account for the possible loss in productivity due to maternity leave. While it’s illegal to consider those issues as a basis for pay, it would be naive to think it doesn’t happen. “Less experience” is how employers beat the system.
What do you mean by women are harder to fire in the long run?
women get paid less because we’re harder to fire……
also not every woman takes maternity leave, shocker. you should definitely publish these findings though.
Slow down, you two. I’m not advocating a pay gap, just providing other reasons why one might exist. I know not every woman takes maternity leave, that’s why I said a possible loss in productivity. Emphasis on possible. By harder to fire I mean affirmative action has made it more difficult to fire/replace women and minorities in the workplace if they don’t perform. Again, not advocating nor denying the pay gap, I just think this economic explanation of the problem is more plausible than “women have less experience.” Not to mention if someone, in fact, does have less experience than a competing applicant, whether they be male or female, they shouldn’t get the job.
Coming out of engineering school, it was generally accepted knowledge that between girl and a guy in the same major with a similar resume that the girl would get a better starting offer than the guy. It was also true that engineering is low in females, and the engineering majors that had higher concentrations of females were the lower paying majors for both genders.
It was also true that our liberal arts college had a large majority of females, and it was generally accepted that if you came out of that college you weren’t gonna have a relevant job any time soon, and when you did, it would be low paying.
I’m guessing this has something to do with the “averages” without accounting for non-gender related issues.
“Oh wait, something something inequality something?”
The stat is women are paid 77% of what men are paid ON AVERAGE. It does not mean that women are being paid 77 cents to every man’s dollar individually, on an all-else-equal basis…
If that were the case, every business with half a brain would exclusively hire women, i.e. the takeaway of “women working their asses off for less pay, even though they do the same work for less recognition” is bullshit.
women don’t get paid less solely because we are women and our work is literally worth-less. we get paid less because we are also in competition with men IN ADDITION to being women. try again.
of course it’s on average, that’s how statistics work. This has been proven time and time again with different population sample sizes, it cannot be disproved unless the sample size was handpicked and only contained exceptions to the rule.
What you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
you tried. arguing with a sociology major (yes i do use my degree at my job) about social inequalities was probably not the best decision you made today. especially with an overused billy madison quote! the price is wrong bitch.
What can I say, it was an apt quote.
Let me clarify my original point: Lumping everyone into an average, with varying degrees of experience, education, hours worked, etc., and then applying that average to an individual case and saying, “I’d be making more if I were a man!” is illogical. It’s the variance in other factors outside of race that makes the average useless for discussion purposes.
edit: replace “race” with “gender”
For a sociology major who apparently uses their degree everyday, your debating skills are severely lacking.
You can’t take an average of every worker over every industry doing every kind of role and then point to that average and say it is statistically perfect. It’s not. It has no variables for differing industries, roles, levels of education, etc.
Take into account hours worked, and the stat becomes even more shaky. Now I am not arguing that there isn’t a pay gap. There clearly is some kind of pay gap. But you need to examine why. For example, the stat is massively skewed by upper management being dominated by older males in the majority of instances. Which, as the article states, is a hangover from equal pay and women only recently being viewed as equals in the workplace (read: early 1990s at best).
You’ve seen the title, got your panties in a bunch and just charged into the argument without thinking through all the issues.
We live in such a pathetic society. Everyone is a victim of something. Instead of measuring yourself year-to-year, people instead focus on bringing down those who are more successful in the fairy-tale hope that it will raise everyone else up.
That definitely isn’t my thinking behind it. I do measure myself year-to-year, and I celebrate those who have worked hard for their success–I plan to do the same thing. But, it’s important to look at the societal trends and social norms based on numerous variables (race, gender, sexual identity). If we didn’t, nothing would ever change. If someone didn’t say, “hey, I think it’s kinda messed up that women can’t vote,” would we be able to? Probably not.
From childhood, toys are gendered. Girls toys are geared more towards nurturing, motherhood type roles. Where male toys are construction sets, doctor stuff, cars! Things of that sort. Sure, you can buy your kid whatever you want, but gender norms definitely start at childhood.
I could ramble on for ages, but I probably wouldn’t change your mind. And that’s okay. 🙂
PREACH sister. Did all this kind of research in school, it’s depressing. I’m on your side. Quick, everyone down vote this!
Same! I took pretty much every class on gender/race/sexual identity that I could in undergrad.
^I think I just found out why you make less…
The truth in this statement cannot be measured.
Haha, k.
Women do not get paid less in their hourly rate. The “income inequality” comes into play based largely on 2 factors: working conditions & children. Men generally take higher risk jobs (think construction or jobs that involve heavy lifting), not that women don’t, just not as often. Also, children. It was mentioned that not all women take maternity leave, but typically they do, and on top of that women will work less hours after child birth. Unfortunately, an employee is more dedicated to their life outside of work is not as valuable to a company as an employee who puts their job first.
You do realize that once economist take into account, job experience, level of education, job responsibility and age the pay gap is almost non-exsistent. Actually, in a 2012 study, Young, childless, single urban women earn 8 percent more than their male counterparts. You have to compare apple-to-apple and then you realize women make like 97 cents to the dollar men do. So there really is no pay-gap.
Just out of curiosity, of those who think that the pay gap is either fair or doesn’t exist, how many of you are men?
Male here.
Not opining on whether there is a wage gap, just that you’re misusing the statistic. Again, this stat doesn’t mean you, a woman, are getting paid 77 cents compared to your male counterpart’s $1. It doesn’t mean if you were the boss, you would make less because you’re a woman. It DOES mean that your boss is statistically more likely to be a male.