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Counterpoint: Differences in Pay Rates Between Men and Women do not Prove the Existence of Gender Inequality

Thesis: Differences in compensation between men and women reflect a complex set of differences that go well beyond gender inequality.

Summary: Statistics showing that women earn less than men in the "same" jobs are commonly used to suggest gender discrimination. But these statistics obscure the many differences in attitudes, experience, and other relevant factors. Corporations manage employees, just as they manage relations with customers and suppliers, for the good of the company. They are thus justified in favoring workers willing to put the interests of the employer ahead of individual interests (including family interests). Research by the Congressional Budget Office has found that, when women behave in the workplace like men do, there is very little wage gap. That is, women whose skills and experience are closely matched to those of their male counterparts see a wage disparity of less than 10 percent.

Let's suppose for the moment, for the sake of argument, that John X. and Mary Y. both work for the same company and have the same job title ("Assistant Manager of Widget Control"). And let us pretend that in 2005 John was paid $100,000; Mary was paid $75,000.

Is this proof of sex discrimination by this company? Was Mary paid less because she was a woman? Was John paid more because he was a man?

Maybe--but maybe not. What difference would it make if we also knew that:

• John volunteered to work the midnight-8 a.m. shift, including weekends, whereas Mary said she had to be home to care for her children and could only work the 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. shift Monday through Friday?

• John had worked for the company since 1980; Mary was hired in 2000.

There might be other differences between John and Mary as well, but given just these two, is a company justified in paying one person more than the other, even though their job titles are the same? Clearly, these two hypothetical people bring to the job different levels of experience and willingness to work undesirable shifts. Isn't the company justified in compensating John for his experience and willingness to work anytime?

Broad statistics showing a persistent gap between earnings of men and women for "the same job" tend to obscure more subtle but meaningful differences between individuals that have nothing to do with gender. Depending on the source, these statistics may not even be comparing the same job.

The relationship between a company and an employee incorporates a complex web of issues. Education, for example, or years of experience are not always recorded on pay slips. Companies value the willingness of an employee to set aside his or her personal life in order to work long hours, or odd hours, or to take assignments out of town. Managing a company is often a matter of relationships--with customers, with suppliers, and with employees. Given the value of experience, for example, it is in a company's interest to cultivate workers who are able and willing to put the company's interests ahead of their personal interests.

The reality of American life in the 21st century may not have changed as much as advocates of gender equality would like. Women, for reasons of biology as well as social custom, may be less inclined to put their job ahead of their family. Women certainly bear all children, and may be inclined to take off more time to care for newborn infants--or maybe even give up their career altogether for a few years. For precisely the same reasons--a desire to care for a family--men are more inclined to make sacrifices in order to assure job security and to earn more money. Although there are many individual examples in which men care for the children while the woman works, the continuing reality of human beings is that women are more inclined to fulfill the caretaker role while men work outside the home to earn money. Research has documented that working mothers are nearly twice as likely to take time off to care for children as are working fathers in dual-earner families. Whether this is a good thing is largely based on perception and opinion; it is not a question of discrimination by employers.

Just as there are statistics showing that the gender "pay gap" is actually growing fastest among the better-educated workers (i.e. women with college educations), so too there are a separate set of statistics showing that compared with trends of a decade ago, women with college degrees are more likely to give up their job in order to raise a family in the first decade of the 21st century than were women in the 1990s.

The US Labor Department has collected figures showing that the number of women who stay home with young children has begun rising, and that this trend is greatest among educated mothers who might otherwise be expected to be earning the highest salaries. Other figures show that the rate of entry by women into the highest-paid occupations has begun to slow. Within some of the highest paid professions--medicine, for example--women are shown to be inclined to choose specialties (e.g. pediatrics) that on average pay less than other specialties. On a larger scale, women are known to choose jobs (or turn down jobs) that might pay more, but also make caring for their family difficult if not impossible. Additionally, women are more likely to work part-time, and almost 85 percent of women who did so in 2000 cited non-economic reasons. That is, they elected to work part time and in many cases, chose to do so because they wanted to spend more time with family. Among part-time workers who never married, women actually earn slightly more than men.

Importantly, there is evidence to suggest the gender-wage gap is closing. In 2007, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, women received 77.8 percent of what men received in median annual earnings. This is the highest earnings ratio to date.

Is the notion of mother as care-taker a matter of gender discrimination that should be wiped out? Is it a matter of biology related to giving birth? Or is a matter of other social influences--such as a lack of affordable day-care provided by government--that could and should be addressed? The reasons women decide to sacrifice their ability to earn money in favor of taking care of their families are presumably as varied as the women who make them. Not all of these decisions can be blamed on sex discrimination by employers--even though that conclusion might leap out from statistics that show only pay rates and don't account for the many factors that go into determining any individual's rate of pay.

DMU Timestamp: February 27, 2021 01:26





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