A new survey released by the Glassdoor Blog takes a look at whether our conceptions on pay gap between men and women are real. Titled, “The Gender Pay Gap – Is it Real? The team at Glassdoor describes themselves as “individuals looking to provide greater transparency into one of the most important aspects of our lives – our jobs. Contributions to the blog are designed to present a unique perspective on current events, offer commentary on the inside workings on specific jobs at a multitude of companies, and provide details on the latest happenings from within Glassdoor.”
The study found that most people do believe men and women are paid equally.
“In fact, 7 in 10 employed adults in seven countries believe men and women are paid equally for equal work at their employer. Women still feel the pinch more than their male counterparts: 70 percent of women believe that there is equal pay for equal work at their employer compared to 77 percent of men. However, with several research reports and studies out there pointing to evidence of pay gaps existing, this illustrates the fact that perception among employees likely doesn’t match up with reality, and that a disconnect persists.”
The common refrain you’ll hear, mostly from Democrats, it that women make around 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes. This statistic comes from BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) surveys. These surveys, however, only gauge the total amount earned by gender without taking any variables into account – particularly the fact that women tend to be more family oriented and men tend to be more career oriented. These are societal norms among the majority of cultures around the world. It’s also true that men are more likely to work the more dangerous, thus higher paid jobs.
For a much better explanation that I could ever give I would you refer to the brilliant economist Thomas Sowell who discussed the topic in this Washington Examiner article “The ’77 percent’ statistical fraud on gender pay gap issue”
For example, some women are mothers and some men are fathers. But does the fact that they are both parents make them comparable in the labor market? Actually the biggest disparity in incomes is between fathers and mothers. Nor is there anything mysterious about this, when you stop and think about it.
This begs the question: If most people don’t believe that men and women are paid differently based on their gender and, in fact, on an apple to apple comparison, they are not paid differently, how do Democratic politicians get away with constantly making that part of their talking points in their false claim that Republican’s are waging a war on women?
Lastly, if women really did get paid approximately 77 cents for every dollar made by a man, why wouldn’t companies hire more women in order to cut down on costs?
