CARPE DIEM: Evidence of a New "Reverse Gender Wage Gap" (via Newsalert):
In other words, if you control for all of the important variables that contribute to wage differentials (age, marital status, having children, etc.), i.e. impose ceteris paribus conditions, there is no evidence of gender discrimination, and either there is no statistically significant wage gap, or now there's a wage gap in favor of women.
posted by Helen at 6:37 AM
9 Comments:
This isn't news. This fact has been known for some time now. Dr. Warren Farrell included it, along with many other interesting factoids, in his book Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap -- And What Women Can Do About It.
Salaries are increasing dramatically in work settings where women are given preferential treatment (not just affirmative action) - like government jobs.
The entire Department of Education could be eliminated, and I don't think anyone would really notice. But take a look at the kind of money they are throwing around there - for "studies" by women's studies professors for writing yet another report on how women are oppressed and how men are scum. Or take a look at the hugely overpaid, incompetent department managers there.
Women are also starting to dominate at universities. Lots of "assistants" there earn between 100 and 200k. Really.
Sorry, I mean "administrators" not assistants.
One reason women surpass men in wages nowadays is the high pay that government workers, including teachers, command that is all out of proportion to their abilities--a result of unionism, certification and government largesse granted those in sinecures merely for breathing.
In those areas requiring clearly superior ability -- sports, chess, haute cuisine, haute couture, physics, math, engineering, economics, film making, architecture, etc -- women hardly even appear, much earn what men do.
"...including teachers ..."
----
At least at my university (and I think it is applicable nationwide), the dumbest people on campus were majoring in education and specifically elementary education.
The difference in intelligence between them and everyone else was not just slight - it was staggering.
The general assumption 20 or 30 years ago was that government jobs paid less than private companies, but you didn't have to work as hard.
Today, some government jobs are paying twice as much as private-company jobs in many cases.
I saw a government job being offered for a very specific type of contract review that pays around $95,000 or so in the private sector. The government job (same experience, same field, everything the same) was being advertised at $197,000. They are just throwing money around. And they are probably looking for a woman as a preference.
... this reverse gender gap, as it's known, applies only to unmarried, childless women under 30 who live in cities.
This 8% "gap" after controlling for a few variables isn't evidence of discrimination in favor of women, as some commenters are taking it. It's just evidence that women in a particular group have higher median wages than men in the same group.
And the fact that median wages are a bit higher for this group strikes me as being no big deal. If things totally turned on their head and women started earning more than men with all the college degrees they're getting, why would it matter?
As long as everyone has a place in society and the ability to self-actualize, I don't see any reason to dwell on these kind of statistics.
Sure, Josh.
That's why if the numbers were reversed, it would OF COURSE be clear evidence of discrimination, and we'd need to pass laws to get rid of it and so on.
You folks don't get to have that one both ways, sorry. Disparity is either a problem either way, or it isn't, but you can't say it's only a problem when it favors men, but when it starts to favor women, it isn't a problem.
Bullshit. Sexist. Misandrist. Nonsense.
Pay disparity in favor of women (and certain minorities) is a significant issue in major companies, because they are under such pressure from the government to hire and promote more women and minorities. They usually take great pains to keep salaries secret, because they would cause such an uproar, but once in a while the truth slips out. A few years ago my Indian boss hired an Indian engineer. The new guy naively let slip the amount that he was being paid, and it turned out to be higher that guys with five years or more experience. There was a huge flap, and my boss ordered an inquisition to find out how his pay was disclosed. He was embarrassed to find out that the guy had disclosed it himself.
Post a Comment
<< Home