Equal Pay?

Wendy McElroy reviews a recent book by Warren Farrell, Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap And What Women Can Do About It:

The first part of the book revolves around refuting feminism's explanation of the wage gap: namely that it results from rampant discrimination against women in the workplace.

Many arguments surrounding the wage gap are not addressed, however.

For example, women's lack of access to various well-paying blue collar jobs due to union policies and attitudes. But addressing such arguments is not the book's purpose. Refuting the specific feminist claim of discrimination is. And Farrell ably accomplishes this goal on two levels.

First, he cites research and extensive government data to demonstrate that women who compete for the same job often earn more than men, not less.

In Table 6, Farrell compares the starting salaries for women and men with Bachelor's Degrees in 26 categories of employment, from investment banker to dietician. Women are paid equally in one category; in every other category, their starting salaries exceed men's. A female investment banker's starting salary is 116 percent of a man's. A female dietician's is 130 percent; that is, $23,160 compared to $17,680.

As has been pointed out many times, the perception of wage differentials is not a single phenomena caused by patriarchal oppression: there are several reasons why, in some cases, men are better paid for similar work than women. Discrimination against women does occur, but statistically it isn't anywhere near as prevalent as it used to be (and if you don't believe this, you can't have been in the workforce 25-30 years ago).

Men, for the most part, do not take time away from paid employment to raise children. Women do. This has two effects on women's employment patterns: time away from the workplace (and therefore reduced experience, training, and promotion opportunities), and a stronger preference for shorter and/or more flexible work hours and an increased aversion to shift work, business travel, and overtime. From the employer's point of view, this may reduce the overall value of a woman's potential contribution to the company in direct comparison to a male co-worker.

Generally, women who do not have children end up having statistically similar careers to men: from the employer's viewpoint the only differences between a man and a woman in those cases will be meritocratic (ongoing job performance, ability to learn, and track record of accomplishment).