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  • A 19 Cent Raise in 45 Years? Women Deserve Equal Pay Now.
    Drew commented on the article | almost 3 years ago
    A 19 Cent Raise in 45 Years? Women Deserve Equal Pay Now.

    Great point X otix.  I just posted a comment to similar effect.  Jen, it's not about making excuses for discrimination; it's about integrity and not exaggerating the magnitude of discrimination.  There is no call for exaggeration.  It only serves to undermine your credibility.

  • A 19 Cent Raise in 45 Years? Women Deserve Equal Pay Now.
    Drew commented on the article | almost 3 years ago
    A 19 Cent Raise in 45 Years? Women Deserve Equal Pay Now.

    I'm all for equal pay, but this article constitutes a gross misrepresentation of the facts.  Where to begin?

    "women are paid only 78¢ on average for every dollar paid to men."

    Well, that's very interesting.  Could it be that women make different life choices that explain some of that pay gap?  Oh, I see you've taken that into account:

    "...authoritative studies show that even when all relevant career and family attributes are taken into account, there is still a significant, unexplained gap in men's and women's earnings."

    This is true; it's on the order of 5% (see http://www.aauw.org/research/behindPayGap.cfm).  I'm not saying that a 5% gap is insignificant.  It's not.  It is, however, not even in the same ballpark as the figures starting at 22% cited in this article.  You can't ignore confounding factors except when confirming that an effect is significant...that's just bad statistics.

    "Hmm - so in 45 years, women's wages compared to men's have only increased by 19 cents?"

    That sure sounds paltry...you can't even buy a gumball for 19 cents.  Except, oh!  You meant 19 cents PER DOLLAR!  Put another way: if average pay for men increased X% over those years, average pay for women increased (X+32)%.  Hm.  Put yet another way: over those 45 years, the pay gap, in terms of percent, has nearly halved.  Maybe those 19 cents aren't so paltry after all.  Finally, none of these numbers take into account any of the many factors other than gender that influence pay.  Who knows what story the real numbers might tell.

    "African-American women earn 69 cents and Latinas earn 59 cents for every dollar paid to men.    "

    Wait...for every dollar paid to African-American and Latino men, respectively?  Or are they being compared to _all_ men, including white men who are, on average, more educated?  The way this article has been going, I'm tempted to believe the latter.

    I find it hard to believe that all of this is accidental.  It's common knowledge that factors such as education and parenthood influence earning potential; to present a bunch of numbers that ignore this is negligent at best and manipulative at worst.  Next time, let the facts speak for themselves.

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