The Gender Wage Gap

May 23, 2006
8:19 am
Posted in: General

Warren Farrell has a fascinating piece in Forbes on the wage gap between men and women.

When I was on the board of directors for the National Organization for Women in New York City during the 1970s, I led protests against the pay gap. I wore a “59 Cents” pin to reflect my objection to the discrimination I felt was the cause of women earning only 59 cents to each dollar earned by men. Now, since I’m a husband and father, discrimination against women isn’t just political, it’s personal.

But one question haunted me through the years: If an employer has to pay a man one dollar for the same work a woman would do for 59 cents, why would anyone hire a man?

Forbes: Are Women Earning More Than Men?

Such an obvious question, but one that never seems to get asked in the cookie-cutter stories about how society is keeping women down. As it turns out, when comparing equal situations, women actually earn more. Go read the whole thing.

Hat tip to Bat1 at Say Anything.

Mark Jaquith

Hi. I’m Mark Jaquith (JAKE-with). I make WordPress, a free and open source publishing platform and I work as a freelance WordPress consultant. This is my personal blog. You can subscribe to my feed or follow me on Twitter and Google+.

10 Responses

Comments temporarily hidden. Will unhide once I get the spam under control.