Today is Equal Pay Day, the day that women would have to work past December 31, 2012 in order to earn as much as a man in a similar job earned in 2012 proper (on average), since women earn - on average - only 77 cents for each dollar that men earn.
Democrats in Congress are pushing for the passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would prevent employers from punishing women who point out pay disparities, but Republicans will not bring the bill to the floor.
6 comments:
Harumph. What will it take? Waiting till all the old, white Repubes are dead???
That won't work - they are making more.
You know, there are two valid reasons women make less than men. The first is women generally choose occupations that that earn lower wages. Men, on average, put in more overtime. Men often do more dangerous work. Men are more willing to work in undesirable locations. Unmarried women (that have no children) actually earn more than men. All this information comes from the US bureau of labor and statistics.
Even men working comparable hours in comparable professions generally earn more. The Paycheck Fairness Act is about actual disparities such as those, not more complex behaviors, though those, of course, also exist.(And more dangerous work - that's really funny. I bet I break up more fights than your average prison guard. And have you ever tried to remove someone's baby from their home? That's dangerous.) Note that you don't say anything about unmarried men - because the men making more money mostly are married with children and they are making that money on their wives' backs. It is true that women are often forced into working fewer hours in less well-paid professions simply because men cannot be convinced to put in a fair share of time at home and are willing to play chicken with the supervision of the children in a way that most women are too responsible to do. Fathers should not be rewarded for this kind of behavior. Women will never be treated fairly in the workplace until the workplace also realizes that all employees - not just women - have responsibilities at home.
When I say "dangerous" I'm refering to work that women simply don't want to do. For example, there aren't many women crab fishermen. The reason I didn't mention unmarried men is because the difference between what they and married men make is insignificant. Are you suggesting fathers should not be paid overtime? Personally I work between 65 and 70 hours a week, every week and I take off only four days a month. By the way, women in my field (over the road truck drivers) are paid exactly the same per mile as the men.
The first responsibility for anyone is to make enough money to pay for their household. Did you know that even women that own their own business make less than men. If she owns her own business she cannot blame sexism for her low income. I'm not suggesting sexism isn't a real problem. On the contrary, it most certainly is. I'm saying the issues are more complex. If a woman doctor chooses to become a GP and a man chooses to become a brain surgeon their income difference isn't due to sexism. It's due to the fact that brain surgery is a higher stress and therefore higher paid occupation.
Warren Farrell is no misogynist. He was elected to the NYC board of the organization for women twice. in his book, "Why Men Earn More," he explains all this. It is worth the read.
Often times, the reason a woman will "choose" to be a GP rather than a surgeon is completely due to sexism - because her husband, even if he works in a much lower paid profession and actually earns less - is not going to pull his weights at home so she has to - this is also true when she runs her own business, etc., though those things are not the point of Equal Pay Day which addresses much more simple pay disparities as I said.
Also, as I was saying, there are many fields dominated by women that are much more dangerous than crab fishing or mudlogging - they just don't get "danger pay" because they are dominated by women and no one cares.
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