Disproving the Gender Pay Gap with a Single USA Today Article
"When salaries for men and women are controlled for job title, experience, industry and hours worked, the pay gap nearly disappears."
In March 2023, in reference to that month’s “equal pay day”, USA Today published an article, Are pay gaps 'sexist'? Democrats want more laws, but that could harm, not help, women:
Here’s a summary of what the paper’s article said:
Gender 'pay gap' stats are misleading
Although feminists and Democratic politicians purport the existence of a gender pay gap that discriminates against women, what they don’t tell you is that this gap only exists when uncontrolled job comparisons are performed. When salaries for men and women are controlled for job title, experience, industry and hours worked, the gap nearly disappears.
Equal pay for equal work is already reality
Payscale, which tracks compensation information, found that the controlled gender pay gap is $.99 for every $1 a man makes. The pay gap exists for the simple reason that women often make different career choices than men (PDF).
“What we've seen historically is the choices that women make, particularly when they are mothers, are just going to naturally lead to lower earnings in part because they're working fewer hours.” — Rachel Greszler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
The differences that do occur provide job flexibility to women
Because women sometimes accept marginally lower wages in turn for remote work, fewer hours, more flexible type of work or even wanting certain types of benefits, more government involvement in enforcing a mythical gender pay gap can backfire.
Government meddling in the economy always comes with risks and unintended consequences, as we’ve seen with forcing higher minimum wages and paid leave policies on the private sector.
“We want to make sure that we're not going to close more doors for women in an attempt to just bring up their wages.” — Rachel Greszler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
Class dismissed.