The facts in 2013, courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data concerning median weekly earnings:
- Full-time female workers earned 82.1 cents for every $1 male workers earned. percent of the median weekly earnings of comparable male workers, a 17.9% wage gap.
- Of full-time workers who clocked at least 35 hours/week, 14.3% of females worked 41+ hours and males worked 25.5%.
- Of full-time workers who clocked 60-hour weeks, 2.7% were females and 6.3% were males.
- Comparing women who work 40-hour weeks to men who work 40-hour weeks, females earn 89.6 cents for every $1 males earn.
- Comparing comparable workers aged 25 to 34, females earn 89.4 cents for every $1 males earn.
- Comparing comparable full-time, single workers who have never been married, females earn 95.2 cents to every $1 males earn, a wage gap of 4.8%.
Thus, marital status explains 75% of the 17.9% gpa in wages. Factoring children into the mix, the wage gap shrinks even more:
- Comparing full-time, single workers with no children at home under 18 years of age or less, females earned 96.1 cents for every $1 males earned.
There is a wage gap but its not of the magnitude that feminists and those on the political left would have people believe. No, as the data indicate, females earn less because they desire workplace flexibility and make career choices that differ from males, as the AEI study's authors noted in a Wall Street Journal article.
The simple fact is that mothers with children tend to exit the labor market. As a result, these females not only have less work experience when they return than their male counterparts but they also tend to seek jobs that allow them to telecommute and other flexibility to fit their lifestyle.
Guess what? Those jobs generally pays both females and males less.
So, the lion's share of the differential in pay is due to age, marriage, and hours worked. It does not correlated with gender, making it quite a stretch of logic to assert that male employers systematically discriminate against females. But, then, what does that matter to ideologues on the political left. Once again, the facts don't fit their fiction.
Let the discussion begin...
To read the AEI study, click on the following link:
http://www.aei.org/publication/new-bls-report-womens-earnings-17-9-gender-pay-gap-2013-explained-age-marriage-hours-worked/?utm_source=today&utm_medium=paramount&utm_campaign=121014
To read the Wall Street Journal article, click on the following link:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303532704579483752909957472