Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDSDuring the last election, it was the phony “war on women”. This time around there’s going to be another fabricated women’s issue called the "gender pay gap".
According to the White House, women working full-time only earn 77 percent of their male counterparts, but that’s not what unbiased sources say.
For instance, the independent polling giant, Pew Research, found that women earn 84 percent of what men earn.
However, when age is factored in, Pew found that young women make 93 percent of what their male counterparts earn, meaning they have nearly caught up to their same-age male counterparts.
Even the wider gap of 16 cents is better than it was in 1980 when the gap was 36 cents, which means the average woman would have to work 90 days longer, roughly from January to the beginning of May, to catch up with men’s earnings from the year before.
So there really is a wage gap? Yes! But here’s why.
“In our survey, women were more likely to say they had taken career interruptions to care for their family. And research has shown that these types of interruptions can have an impact on long-term earnings,” Pew reports.
“Roughly four-in-ten mothers say they have taken a significant amount of time off from work (39%) or reduced their work hours (42%) to care for a child or other family member. Roughly a quarter (27%) say they have quit work altogether to take care of these familial responsibilities. (Fewer men say the same. For example, just 24% of fathers say they have taken a significant amount of time off to care for a child or other family member.)”
Another reason is that women, as a whole, are continuing to work in lower-payer occupations than men. Even though they have “broken the glass ceiling” and have a much greater presence in higher-paying professional and managerial jobs that were traditionally dominated by men, they continue to occupy lower-paying jobs.
Does this mean gender discrimination doesn’t exist? No. It still does. Pew found that women are about twice as likely as men to say they had been discriminated against at work because of their gender (18% vs. 10%).
Women have actually come much further than what they’re being given credit for, which makes this “gender pay gap” issue nothing more than a manufactured crisis designed to give some politicians leverage over the women’s vote. They’re counting on women being uninformed and easily manipulated by fist-pumping rhetoric rather than facts.
Sabrina Schaeffer, executive director of the Independent Women’s Forum, calls the issue a “Trojan Horse for horrible policy”.
“The statistical difference between women and men’s average earnings isn’t driven by widespread sexism, but largely from different choices men and women make throughout our lives. The Administration and its allies know the wage gap statistic is grossly misleading; in fact, last year the White House conceded the figure is flawed, yet continues to regurgitate it again this year.”
She continues: “It’s time for those peddling this myth to stop pretending women are victims bound by an inherently sexist society. Women and girls have tremendous opportunity to learn, to work, and to succeed in America today, and we want to empower our daughters to make the choices that make sense for them and advocate for themselves in the workplace.”
This time around, don’t allow yourself to be manipulated by phony facts and contrived issues. Insist on receiving the reliable facts and data you deserve in order to make a fully informed decision about who will best represent the real issues women are facing today.
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