A Foolish Charge by Liberal Quixote’s

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 14^th 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  So let’s drill down on these outdated numbers and false premises.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  This percentage is not only outdated, it’s virtually useless.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.