As indicated in my previous post, liberals assert that women aren't paid equal to men for the same work. In support of this assertion, Democrats claim that women make about 77 cents for every dollar made by men.
However, equating these two assertions is highly deceptive at worse and very misleading at best, not to mention it doesn't make sense. As Dennis Prager intimated in his review of the 2014 State of the Union Address (see HERE), anyone with even a modest grasp of basic economics would know that businesses have a built-in disincentive to pay 23% more than they need to for the exact same work. It is analogous to were a woman to sell iPads for 23% less than a man....who would you buy from? Would you buy from the man? Of course not.
In truth, the two assertions are not only like comparing apples to oranges, but also comparing apples to a whole cornucopia of fruits and vegetables. The first assertion is job specific and based on an hourly rate for equal work and results, whereas the second is an average of annual wages across a broad spectrum of occupations with varied work, hours, and results. The first assertion does NOT account for a number of factors that DO in fact figure into the second assertion. Carrie Lukas wrote: "All the relevant factors that affect pay -- occupation, experience, seniority, education and hours worked -- are ignored [by those citing the wage gap]. This sound-bite statistic fails to take into account the different roles that work tends to play in men's and women's lives." (See HERE, as quoted HERE)
To get a better sense for what Carrie was suggesting, I will unpack the second assertion using government statistics (except where otherwise specified, I will use data from the 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistic Report--see HERE), and point out key reasons for the disparity.
As will be demonstrated in the next several articles, while annual earnings differences are an established fact, it isn't in spite of equal work, but because of inequality of work. For the most part, the disparity isn't due to wrongful discrimination or "Mad Man" policies--as Obama falsely insinuated (see HERE and HERE), but a function of personal choices and free market forces--including, more particularly, on the part of women. It is neither an injustice or an embarrassment, but a result of liberty.
The 2009 Labor Department report indicates: "This study leads to the unambiguous conclusion that the differences in the compensation of men and women are the result of a multitude of factors and that the raw wage gap should not be used as the basis to justify corrective action. Indeed, there may be nothing to correct. The differences in raw wages may be almost entirely the result of the individual choices being made by both male and female workers.” (Quoted HERE)
It is high time the dense fog of disinformation is lifted from this ongoing issue and the LUNC-ish myths put to rest--strained claims to the contrary notwithstanding (see HERE), and instead consider the distinct plausibility that liberals have been feverishly and misleadingly attempting to "fix" something that isn't broken, and this at the risk (i.e. Leftist LUNC) of stepping on personal and business rights and making matters worse for all parties, including the women for whom the misleading "fix" was intended to help.
Let me break this down even further--see:
- Different Jobs, Different Pay
- Different Hours, Different Pay
- Different Value, Different Pay
- Different Locations, Different Pay
For an explanation as to why these Leftist LUNCs may occur, please see: Gov: Wrong Tool for the Right Job - Introduction and Cold Nanny as well as The Politics of Compassion, Emotions, Ignorance, Denial, Blame-Shifting, Equality, and Victimization
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