The Magically Disappearing Gender Wage Gap

            You’ve heard it before; women earn 0.75 cents on the dollar men make! Joe Biden and Hilary Clinton have proposed an equal pay amendment. Obama recently advocated for the Paycheck Fairness Act, essentially making it easier to sue women to sue their employers. However, there is something to be learned here. Don’t take statistics on their face value. Dig deeper and you’ll discover the nuances that tell the complete story.

For instance, during the 90s the press reported on a publishing of a significant research stating that black and Hispanics have higher rejection rates for mortgages than their white counterparts. The government reacted pressing banks and Wall Street to provide more home loans and loosen their lending requirements. One example of this is the Community Reinvestment Act. This was one the factors in the inflation of the housing market leading up to the collapse of the housing market in 2009 and the genesis of Great Recession. What the press did not tell you is the study states in its own words that it did not evaluate the credit worthiness of the rejected applicants, and that Asians were virtually on par with whites are as far their lending approval and rejection rates. If only Congress had dug a bit further, the housing crisis and this economic downturn could have been averted or least mitigated.

            This is not to say the study that said women her 0.75 cents on the dollar that men make is a fake, nor that the authors should be discredited. The problem is in the interpretation. When you do not objectively analyze the data within the proper context, errors in extrapolation are bound to occur. If only congress and the pundits had taken a closer look, they would have learned an important truth. The same holds true for the 0.75 cents study.

            Former Congressional Budget Office Director June O’Neill and Professor of Economics Dave O’Neill authored research on male/female pay ratio taking into account factors such as education, years of experience, and chosen occupation. They found that women actually earn 92 to 99 cents on the dollar men do. Without the consideration of these factors, any study on male/female pay ratio would be useless. For example, comparing a 45-year-old man working for 20 years as a nuclear scientist to a 19-year-old girl working her first job at McDonalds would not be a good template for analyzing the gender pay gap or visa versa.

            Another reason for that .08 to .01 cent disparity is explained in an American Association of University Women study. The study finds men are four more times more likely to bargain for wages than women. The top 25 most dangerous jobs are male dominated. The level of risk is a factor for higher pay. Married women are more likely to take part-time jobs than men. They often work fewer hours in order to meet social (i.e. religious groups and non-profit organizations) and personal responsibilities (i.e. family and personal relationships). The Department of Labor found full time women worked 8.01 hours per day while their male colleagues worked 8.75. Women often seek employment accommodations for childcare. The majority women often opt for employment options with better benefits than higher pay.

            Feminists have declared April 12 Equal Pay days because by their logic women have to work farther in the calendar to reach pay parity with men. In certain cases they could not be farther from the truth. The bear economy has been much more unsympathetic toward men. From November 2007 to May 2008, women age 20 and up accrued 300,000 jobs while men lost 700,000 jobs. With typically male dominated industries, such as manufacturing and construction industries, being on the wane, men are feeling more the pain. Manufacturing is 70% male and construction is 88%. Currently, the unemployment rate for men is worse. 9.3% of men are unemployed while only 8.3% of women are. Carrie Lukas noted. “The participation rate fell more among men (to 70.4% today from 71.4% in March 2010) than women (to 58.3% from 58.8%).” This means the Great Recession has been harder on men causing them to give up hopes on find a job in this turbulent economy. Business Week Reports:

The share of all men aged 20 and over with jobs has fallen since last November [of 2007], when private-sector employment peaked, going from 72.9% to 72.2% in April [of 2008]. For women the ratio rose, from 58.1% to 58.3%. The adult male unemployment rate has risen twice as much as the female jobless rate.

For the most part, the gender gap has become quiet negative for women. The research firm Reach Advisers uncovered that single women without children between the ages of 22 and 30 earned 8% more than males falling in same category. One New York study uncovered women earning more than men in major cities. The Department of Sociology at Queens College published research that full-time women age 20 and up were surpassing men in Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, Dallas and New York. In Dallas women earned 20% more than men and in New York 17% more.

There is not only a wage and jobless gap, but there is also an education gap in women’s favor. The US Census Bureau found that women are more likely to attain high school diplomas than men, 87.6 percent to 86.6 percent. In 1996, more women had attained bachelor’s degrees than men. This trend continues today. 20.1 million women have bachelor’s degrees while only 18.7 million men do. The gap of masters and doctorates between men and women has been diminishing over the past years. With higher female to male college attendance ratios, this gap should soon be closing. The AP reports:

Among adults 25 and older, 10.6 million U.S. women have master's degrees or higher, compared to 10.5 million men. Measured by shares, about 10.2 percent of women have advanced degrees compared to 10.9 percent of men…

            With their higher female to male college attendance ratios, this gap should also soon be closing. Since women make up more than half of the work force and the wage gap vastly shrinking under the light of scrutiny, it is amazing how feminists could have so grossly miscalculated. Perhaps, they should redub April 12 “Patriarchy, get back or school and/or work day” or “Men, seriously, it’s time to grow up day”.