
Equal Pay Is Not Just a Women’s Issue, It’s a Family and Economic Issue Too - wj
http://womenwanttobeontop.com/index.php/2016/04/12/equal-pay-is-not-just-a-womens-issue-its-a-family-and-economic-issue-too/
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patrickmay
The gender based wage gap is a myth: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christina-
hoff-sommers/wage-ga...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christina-hoff-
sommers/wage-gap_b_2073804.html)

~~~
cassieramen
Another article by the huffington post saying the opposite

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/no-the-gender-pay-gap-
is...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/no-the-gender-pay-gap-isnt-a-myth-
and-heres-why_us_5703cb8de4b0a06d5806e03f)

~~~
onnoonno
FTA:

> But the argument that “life choices” made by women are the real reason
> behind the gap is, in itself, an absurd oversimplification. Sure, many women
> choose to stay home or cut back their hours after having children. But many
> others don’t opt out. They’re forced out because they cannot afford child
> care, or find a full-time job that affords them any kind of flexibility.

There is no reason to believe that lack of flexibility or not being able to
afford day care wouldn't hit men in the same way, too.

The people who call it a myth show that the gap disappears as soon as you
control for these variables. Actually, the gap disappears to a large degree by
looking at actual hours worked instead of just the yearly salary of jobs with
the same description.

~~~
cassieramen
There is strong reason to believe the lack of flexibility would hit women much
stronger than men.

Census that shows 82.6% of custodial single parents are female in the United
States.
[http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p60-237.pdf](http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p60-237.pdf)

Article summarizing studies that show that even in marriages that attempt to
be egalitarian both spouses agree the female ends up taking on more of the
household responsibilities.
[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/31/upshot/millennial-men-
find...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/31/upshot/millennial-men-find-work-
and-family-hard-to-balance.html)

~~~
onnoonno
Well, but then that simply is a _choice_ , isn't it?

I would not expect to be paid in full if I work part-time - why should that be
true if I would be a woman?

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heptathorp
Besides the gap myth (or misconception, I would call it) that others have
already pointed out, this article contains some other questionable statements.

> Numerous studies have shown that equal pay for women would significantly
> boost the American economy—in one year, the U.S. would have produced $447.6
> billion more income

Surely this income not going to women is going to someone else -- male
workers, presumably, or to shareholders. $450B wouldn't just come out of thin
air, would it? The linked page doesn't explain how they came to this number.
I'm assuming they just took the difference women earn on average times the
number of working women.

------
cassieramen
I know there have been a couple of companies that are making the move to
openly discuss employee pay. It's something that surely needs to happen. Twice
in my short career I've run into very obvious pay discrimination revealed
after an employee on the way out told me their salary. Once to me, once to a
fellow female developer. Excited to see both voluntary moves toward this as
well as legislation.

~~~
ap3
What was the nature of the discrimination? How bad was it?

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dudul
Framing the problem as "benefits gap" as opposed to "pay gap" sounds like a
good way forward I think. The article rightly points to the difference in
terms of parental leave and other benefits, which are usually not brought up
when talking about pay gap.

------
pink_dinner
These studies have been debunked countless times. When all is equal (hours
worked, degree, and experience), women get paid pretty much the same amount as
men.

[http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wage-gap-myth-that-wont-
die-...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wage-gap-myth-that-wont-
die-1443654408)

~~~
cassieramen
Another article by the wsj saying the opposite.
[http://www.wsj.com/articles/gender-pay-gap-
widens-1445389259](http://www.wsj.com/articles/gender-pay-gap-
widens-1445389259)

~~~
pink_dinner
I posted the article as an example, but there are many other studies on it
coming to the same conclusion.

------
Spivak
Not that I expected greatness from a website called womenwanttobeontop.com but
this article is just bad. Not in the sense that the issue isn't important, but
that the authors points are flimsy which does more to harm her message more
than help it.

> women still make 79 cents to a man’s dollar

If you're opening your article with this line you're already pandering to your
base. Nobody who would read this article critically would take that line
seriously. Especially since the cited link isn't a study or any kind of
evidence, it's another uncited article which simply parrots her statement.

Taking aggregate values is useful in the sense that it signifies that
_something_ is probably wrong, but then she assumes that the aggregate data is
meaningful on the individual level.

If men and women were paid exactly the same for the same work it's still
possible to wind up with a wage gap in aggregate. That doesn't mean that there
isn't a problem, but it would mean that the problem isn't wage discrimination.

> For women of color, this gap is even higher.

She linked the exact same useless 'article' for this statement that she did
for the previous one. Worse, the linked article doesn't even _mention_ the gap
between different races.

The question that's actually interesting is if there's a wage gap between
whites and blacks (yes) and if the gap for black women is larger than the
combined gap between men and women and whites and blacks. One outcome is more
significant than the other.

> Numerous studies have shown that equal pay for women would significantly
> boost the American economy—in one year, the U.S. would have produced $447.6
> billion more income

The "study" (not a study, singular) cited in the paragraph is from the
Institute for Women's Policy Research which provides no evidence for her
claims and seems to be founded on the completely fallacious economic reasoning
that the money required to fill the gap doesn't come from anywhere and will
have no other economic effects.

Well no shit the economy will improve if you just magically create 21% more
wealth from nowhere.

> The income women bring in is also increasingly critical to the financial
> security of family units, and when women make less that means less money for
> groceries, gas, rent, college tuition and other things families need.

This has nothing to do with women. This has to do with the current state of
the middle class, job security, and having a functioning social safety net.

> Women in senior leadership positions need to mentor younger women and
> advocate for their advancement in companies.

The hypocrisy is staggering. Women should be using their positions of power
and influence to advantage other women simply because of their sex.

