The War on Women

[Brainfade]

Wonder how the smiling women, who have no doubt been selected for the perfect photo-op to represent every age, every race and every hair color, feel when they see that the guy who is signing the "Equal pay for equal work" act is himself guilty of this:

[Mariyam]

What can be the cause of this discrepancy for jobs in the US govt? Find it actually quite difficult to believe that a difference of 12% exists in US government jobs. Does the US have different limits for minimum taxable income for males and females ( at least at a federal level) like we have in India? Are women entrepreneurs likelier to get credit against lesser collateral vis a vis their male counterparts?

[ganeshran]

@CA Can you provide the source of the graphic, and how they compared pay gaps

[Ram]

CA, I have come to expect better from you than this. No context, no details, no sourcing. Just a blanket statement that Obama pays women less?! #Disappointed

[Brainfade]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/annual-records/2013

[Ram]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/annual-records/2013

I checked the link. For the same position (Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Public Engagement), the Obama Whitehouse pays a man (David Agnew) and a women (Paulette Aniskoff), the exact same salary ($1,53,000). So, where's the discrimination? (or 'unequal' pay for equal work) :dontknow:

[Brainfade]

I checked the link. For the same position (Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Public Engagement), the Obama Whitehouse pays a man (David Agnew) and a women (Paulette Aniskoff), the exact same salary ($1,53,000). So, where's the discrimination? (or 'unequal' pay for equal work) :dontknow:

Glad you noticed that. You are right. Have you and the Dems applied the same level of critical thinking when the President threw out the 77% statistic with no context, no sourcing and no details? And followed it up with *another* piece of meaningless, feel-good regulation? Or have they just applauded him for his big heart, no questions asked? Here's all the context for the alleged pay gap:

Then there is the issue of marriage and children. The BLS reports that single women who have never married earned 96% of men's earnings in 2012. Enlarge Image Corbis The supposed pay gap appears when marriage and children enter the picture. Child care takes mothers out of the labor market, so when they return they have less work experience than similarly-aged males. Many working mothers seek jobs that provide greater flexibility, such as telecommuting or flexible hours. Not all jobs can be flexible, and all other things being equal, those which are will pay less than those that do not. Education also matters. Even within groups with the same educational attainment, women often choose fields of study, such as sociology, liberal arts or psychology, that pay less in the labor market. Men are more likely to major in finance, accounting or engineering. And as the American Association of University Women reports, men are four times more likely to bargain over salaries once they enter the job market. Risk is another factor. Nearly all the most dangerous occupations, such as loggers or iron workers, are majority male and 92% of work-related deaths in 2012 were to men. Dangerous jobs tend to pay higher salaries to attract workers. Also: Males are more likely to pursue occupations where compensation is risky from year to year, such as law and finance. Research shows that average pay in such jobs is higher to compensate for that risk.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303873604579493850089699972?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303873604579493850089699972.html

A new survey from PayScale this morning finds that the wage gap nearly evaporates when you control for occupation and experience among the most common jobs, especially among less experienced workers. It is only as careers advance, they found, that men outpaced female earnings as they made their way toward the executive suite. So, women aren't starting off behind their male counterparts, so much as they're choosing different jobs and losing ground later in their careers.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/05/the-biggest-myth-about-the-gender-wage-gap/276367/ This 3rd one is a graph that shows that high-paying STEM careers are 65% male. The issue is not that women are being paid less for the same job. The issue is that women are self-selecting into lower-paid jobs. http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/2014/04/07/how-the-gender-gap-at-engineering-schools-leads-to-a-pay-gap-after-college/ My point was more about the the hypocrisy than the alleged discrimination itself. I wish you would hold the President to the same high standards as you hold a poor associate professor of biology who wastes his time on a cricket message board to avoid grading :-).

[Raghav_12]

In a market place like US, salaries of any person would be determined purely by market forces. If it was possible for a company to hire a woman for lesser cost than a man for same quality and quantity of work, then we would have been seeing all woman getting work before man are considered for any role. It is just propaganda run by feminists. I don't think there are deliberate attempts for such gap. There are various reasons for the same as explained by CA earlier in the thread.

[Ram]

Glad you noticed that. You are right. Have you and the Dems applied the same level of critical thinking when the President threw out the 77% statistic with no context, no sourcing and no details? And followed it up with *another* piece of meaningless, feel-good regulation? Or have they just applauded him for his big heart, no questions asked? Here's all the context for the alleged pay gap: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303873604579493850089699972?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303873604579493850089699972.html http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/05/the-biggest-myth-about-the-gender-wage-gap/276367/ This 3rd one is a graph that shows that high-paying STEM careers are 65% male. The issue is not that women are being paid less for the same job. The issue is that women are self-selecting into lower-paid jobs. http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/2014/04/07/how-the-gender-gap-at-engineering-schools-leads-to-a-pay-gap-after-college/ My point was more about the the hypocrisy than the alleged discrimination itself. I wish you would hold the President to the same high standards as you hold a poor associate professor of biology who wastes his time on a cricket message board to avoid grading :-).

Oh I actually agree with every single of what you have to say and every piece of reference you quoted. Of course there’s not going to be equal pay between men and women because, typically, like you mentioned, they tend to gravitate towards unequal jobs. Is this new whitehouse campaign anything but another marketing move to shore up one of their core constituencies (women voters) before the 2016 elections? Of course yes! Having said that – is there some level discrimination in most workplaces in the US between men and women? Probably, but from my experience not that crippling (the problem is way severe in societies like India, where the female folk have next to zero chance of getting to executive decision making positions). P.S; I hope you get to grade lesser and lesser so that we at ICF have the opportunity to read some of your wonderful, balanced opinions. :)