By
William L. Garvin
For
some time, media has enabled the Democrat party to lob the social grenade that
Republicans hate women and in fact have a “war on women.” The latest contrived chapter in this fantasy
tale is the “equal pay for equal work” canard being foisted upon the American
public. It’s quite disconcerting to
watch intelligent people mount liberal steeds and tilt at this fantasy
windmill. Naturally, their trusty Sancho
Panza of mainstream media never deigns to correct this deceitful charge.
You
undoubtedly heard that the feminist movement dubbed April 14th as
“Equal Pay Day.” This is based on the erroneous
premise that women make only 77% of what men make and they have to work that
far into 2015 to “catch up” with what men made in 2014. Even the American Association of University
Women joined in with a mass mailing perpetuating these falsehoods. So let’s drill down on these outdated numbers
and false premises.
First
of all, the 77% number was derived from comparing the median income of all
full-time working women and the median income of all full-time working
men. This percentage is not only
outdated, it’s virtually useless. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that in 2012 “women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median usual
weekly earnings of $691.00. On average
in 2012, women made about 81% of the median earnings of male full-time wage and
salary workers ($854).” Using
current and accurate figures, “Equal Pay Day” was a month late and should have
been March 10th!
A
second factor that liberals ignore (for whatever reason) is the amount of time
actually worked. The Department of
Labor’s Time Use Survey finds that the average full-time working woman works
7.75 hours per day while the average full-time working man works 8.14 hours per
day. That alone could account for
one-quarter of the purported wage gap.
If men work 5% longer, is it surprising that they would make 5% more? According to economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth,
when you compare men and women who both work 40 hours weekly, the gap is even closer
at 88%.
Another
variable seldom considered is vocational choice. Men will often pursue more dangerous
positions when the money is better. Men
dominate fields such as iron workers, loggers, fishers, policing, manufacturing,
mining, and construction which are high-risk, high-reward occupations. As a result, 92% of work-related deaths in
2012 were men.
It
is also important to look at education. In
2012 (the latest data available), the Department of Education shows that women
earned 57% of bachelor’s degrees, 60% of master’s degrees, 51% of doctorates
and nearly half the doctor of medicine and law degrees! Significantly, a Georgetown University study
of academic majors that lead to the greatest compensation found that women were
the majority in only one discipline:
petroleum engineering (87% male); pharmacy/pharmaceutical sciences (48%
male); mathematics and computer sciences (67% male); aerospace engineering (88%
male); and chemical engineering (72% male).
In contrast, women chose and dominated four of the five least
remunerative majors:
counseling/psychology (74% female); early childhood education (97%
female); theology and religious vocations (34% female); human services and community
organizations (81% female); and social work (88% female).
Finally,
many studies such as those by former Congressional Budget Office director
Professor June O’Neill and Professor Marianne Bertrand of the University of
Chicago show that when women work at the same jobs as men, with the same
accumulated lifetime work experience, they earn essentially the same
salaries. If you compare apples to
apples and oranges to oranges, the equal pay myth quickly goes up in smoke. So the question is why this myth continues
and why is it so readily accepted?
There
are already laws on the books such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963 that requires
equal pay for equal work and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that allows
compensation disputes due to discrimination to be filed (with no statute of
limitations!). It is factually clear
that there is no nationwide collusion to keep wages of women down. There is no evil corporate conspiracy. What more do feminists want? Why do Barack Obama, Andrew Cuomo and
Patricia Arquette continue to purposely mislead? Is it ignorance or is it malevolence? Why do liberal Quixote’s continue to tilt at
an imaginary windmill when there are real problems that need to be addressed? Is it a political conspiracy designed to
subordinate truth in pursuit of victory?
Just as Harry Reid is unapologetic about his lies regarding Mitt Romney,
so are those who perpetuate the “war on women” and the “equal pay” falsehoods…and
that includes the puppet media who fail the American people on a daily basis.
