So I noticed you reblogged a post from me that made a reference to the wage gap between men and women in the United States. In noticing that, I also saw that you made a vaguely sarcastic remark expressing your distaste for the idea that the wage gap even exists. I'd like to ask you why you don't believe in the wage gap when U.S. Consensus data provides proof of its existence; even our government acknowledges that it is real while simultaneously refusing to pass bills promoting wage equality.
The problem isn’t that women are paid less than men for the same work, it’s that women earn less than men. They earn less than men because they aren’t doing the same work.The “Women earn 77c for every $1 a men earn” was found by calculating the difference between the average earnings of all men and women in full-time work.Thus it ignores the fact that men and women usually have different educations, work in different fields, and work for different hours.For instance, 40 hours in a week is generally considered full-time. But on average men work longer than that.Now this is purely hypothetical, but if women on average work a 40-hour full-time work week, and men on average work a 52-hour week, a 23% difference in pay isn’t much of a shock.That’s the kind of variable the wage gap crusaders conveniently ignore. If men work 23% more than women in the same job, men deserve 23% more pay.
Not only that, men study different degrees to women. Nine of the ten most high-paying majors, from Patroleum Engineering to Mining and Mineral Engineering, all have between 67% and 97% male students.
Compare that to nine of the ten least-paying majors, from Counceling Psychology to Visual and Performing Arts, which have between 55% and 97% female students.
Women choose to go into careers they know pay less, therefore they are paid less. Women work less hours than men, therefore they are paid less.
If a woman is being paid less for the same work than her male counterparts, well then her employer is breaking the law, and should be prosecuted.
That is not a problem of the state, but of an individual, therefore it cannot be a symptom of ‘patriarchy’.
And it’s not necessarily that the government refuses to pass legislation promoting wage equality, the government refuses to pass legislation promoting equality.
That’s why legislation is skewed so far to favour women, and won’t ever be repealed, even though that would be the egalitarian thing to do.
