The Pay Gap Myth

The Department of Labor recently funded this study, and provided a forward, which found the pay gap is a result of choices such as longer hours, flexibility, etc., not discrimination. “An Analysis of the Reason for the Disparity in Wages Between Men and Women,”
http://www.consad.com/content/reports/Gender%20Wage%20Gap%20Final%20Report.pdf

Even CNN has debunked the “pay gap” myth.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/04/magazines/fortune/muphy_payact.fortune/index.htm

Professor June O’Neill, Ph.D., former director of Congressional Budget Office, found the same thing in “The Gender Gap in Wages, circa 2000,” American Economic Review, 5/03.

This was further supported in the book “Why Men Earn More” by Warren Farrell, Ph.D., which examined 25 career/life choices men and women make (hours, commute times, etc.) that lead to men earning more and women having more balanced lives, and that showed how men in surveys prioritize money while women prioritize flexibility, shorter hours, shorter commutes, less physical risk and other factors conducive to their choice to be primary parents, an option men still largely don’t have. That is why never-married childless women outearn their male counterparts, and female corporate directors now outearn their male counterparts.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0752118220071107?feedType=R

Farrell also lists dozens of careers, including fields of science, where women outearn men.

Women simply have more options than men to be primary parents, and many of them exercise that option rather than work long, stressful hours. That is why 57% of female graduates of Stanford and Harvard left the workforce within 15 years of entry into the workforce. http://edition.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/03/15/optout.revolution/

This is an option few men have (try being a single male and telling women on the first date that you want to stay home).

Blaming men for women’s choices is unfair. In fact research shows most men have no problem with their wives outearning them. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23413243

Research also shows most working dads would quit or take a pay cut to spend more time with kids if their spouses could support the family.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/Careers/06/13/dads.work/index.html

Research also shows that parents share workloads more when mothers allow men to be primary parents.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-05-04-equal-parenting_N.htm

For more, see:

ABC News: “Is the Wage Gap Women’s Choice? Research Suggests Career Decisions, Not Sex Bias, Are at Root of Pay Disparity”
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/GiveMeABreak/story?id=797045&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/2341324