Gender Pay Gap

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Now this is interesting...

Pew Research just released a study on the Gender Pay Gap in the United States. This figure sums up the overall conclusion:



There has been a consistent narrowing of the Gender Pay Gap (measured as women's salary as % of the salary of men) since 1980. Furthermore, the pay gap is even lower (7 percent) among the youngest generation (ages 25-34).

What is *really* interesting, though, is this:



In the 25-34 year age group, wages for men are decreasing, while wages for women are increasing.

One reason for this development could be the decline in the US birth rate, but this rate has been fairly stable since 1970.

A more likely reason is education.



And as I have stated *here*...
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt241230.html

... household income for people with less than a bachelor's degree has actually been decreasing in the US in the last 20 years.

Source:
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/12/ ... y-for-now/

Discuss.

Last edited by GGPViper on 12 Dec 2013, 8:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

I put little stock in the whole "gender gap" thing.

Fact. Pretty much every employer with standardized pay scales pay men and women equally for the same job.

Fact. Any employer that lets the candidate negotiate the final pay/benefit package will have disparity in what any two employees might be paid for doing the same job. Often, it is skewed in favor of men who tend to be more daring negotiators.

It's neither sexist nor discriminatory if men tend to negotiate better compensation packages with an employer than women do. It's about negotiation skills, not gender.

Fact: Men and women are perceived differently when they negotiate. Women have to justify their negotiation if they don't want to be perceived as aggressive, which is a negative quality for women.

Totally agree - I have first hand experience both of the gender pay gap, and of being accused of being aggressive when I've negotiated assertively.

Not all companies have pay bands. Small, private companies that don't have pay bands and are run by sexist men, in my experience, will often favour men over women in many areas including pay.

This is gonna sound sexist but,
I'd like to see a graph showing percentage of pay spent on the opposite gender.
Why don't we also get rid of the expectation that men should always be footing the bill.

Getting rid of gender-based expectations sounds feminist, actually.

When you consider that men have traditionally been working in construction, engineering and manufacturing, that women have traditionally been involved in service and support, and that "masculine" jobs have been on the decline while "feminine" jobs have been on the increase in recent years, it is easier to see why the gender gap in pay is decreasing - fewer high-paying "masculine" jobs and more lower-paying "feminine" jobs.

It is not so much an enlightenment in management as an erosion in traditionally masculine employment opportunities.

Not necessarily feminist. The main focus for feminism is on women's rights before egalitarian rights. Feminism, however, could, and does often, employ gender egalitarianism as a standard.

It is very disappointing that the decreasing gap is caused as much by men's wages lowering as by women's wages increasing. That was never the point. We would all be better off if men still made more, on average, even if it meant that the gender gap was still higher; families would be better off, on average.

Didn't they sign the Fair Pay Act into law a while back?

Good idea.

I've had the experience of trying to pay my own way and having the guy act like I'd suggested he cut his own balls off.
Guys should stop doing that.

When I was in a relationship, I had no problem going "dutch". As a matter of fact we did most of the time. I also had no problem personally paying the whole tab when she was broke. But if I was broke and she had to pay the tab, she complained a lot about that. One of the 1001 reasons I'm not with that woman anymore.

Actually a lot of progress has been made on that front, things are a lot more 50-50 these days. But there are still golddiggers out there. But men lose interest really fast with those girls.

I really prefer either going dutch, or each person paying for what they eat. It's a matter of self-respect for me not to have someone paying my way like I'm a child.

The disappointing thing is the average wage dropping rather than men's wages dropping. If, previously, men were unjustly beating women to the highest-earning jobs, then you'd expect the average male wage to drop if women started getting the jobs they deserved.

Let's start with 'Alimony'. Having to pay a monthly fine for not being good enough to keep is both wrong and barbaric, and it also reinforces the idea that women are only in love with men's money and not the men.

Doesn't alimony go both ways?

What is your proposed solution, Fnord? Would you raise taxes in order to raise child support?