http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/upshot/the-pay-gap-is-because-of-gender-not-jobs.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0
23 cents is the high end but there is certainly still a gap
Did you actually read that article? Here's the key part:
Dr. Goldin sets aside much of the conventional wisdom about what makes workplaces more equitable, like anti-discrimination laws and employee revolt. And she does not emphasize the “Lean In” prescription — involving men in domestic chores and improving women’s confidence and negotiating skills.
Instead, she said, the trick is workplace flexibility in terms of hours and location.
“The gender gap in pay would be considerably reduced and might vanish altogether if firms did not have an incentive to disproportionately reward individuals who labored long hours and worked particular hours,” she wrote in a paper published this month in The American Economic Review.
Occupations that most value long hours, face time at the office and being on call — like business, law and surgery — tend to have the widest pay gaps. That is because those employers pay people who spend longer hours at the office disproportionately more than they pay people who don’t, Dr. Goldin found. A lawyer who works 80 hours a week at a big corporate law firm is paid more than double one who works 40 hours a week as an in-house counsel at a small business.
Well color me shocked! Employers want to pay more money to people who work harder? That doesn't seem very fair, does it?
The fact remains that any number of studies by economists who have seriously looked at this conclude that the supposed "gender wage gap" is little to non-existent when controlling for certain quantifiable factors like different occupations, different hours, etc. Therefore, what little gap remains - maybe 1-6% depending on the study - is due to non-quantifiable factors.
What might those non-quantifiable factors be? Well, I
suppose it could be discrimination, even though that violates state and federal law. Or maybe it's just that women are much less likely to negotiate for higher salaries, as numerous studies have shown.
I once talked with a self-proclaimed feminist about this. She was annoying as all fuckall and I knew this would rile her up. To my surprise, she admitted that the 77% statistic is simply based on women working less hours and in occupations that aren't as highly valued, but then she hit me with this: "But we have to consider
the discrimination in society that is causing women to want to work fewer hours, and the discrimination that causes majority-female professions like teaching to pay less." In other words, if women choose to lead a more balanced work/family life, that wasn't a real choice - it was subconsciously foisted upon them by society's gender stereotyping. And a school teacher should be paid just the same as a neurosurgeon. What a fantasy world.
