Paycheck Fairness Act: The Big Lie
Sadly, the Obama administration has told so many lies about men and women it is hard to know how low it will go. The baseless 77 cents on the dollar and equal pay for equal work lies are excellent examples of The Big Lie Propaganda Technique since the work of Adolph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels in their attacks on Jews.
Here is the truth about the purported gender pay gap based on many sound studies by economists and other social scientists. Yes, if you take either the mean or median raw data on pay received, men will have received more dollars than women. However, and as even the most ardent of the Progressive True Believers knows, there are many factors that determine how much money you get for your work. Obvious determinants of pay include number of hours worked per week, education, experience, required travel, required supervision, and the dangerousness of the job. When these and other well known determinants of how much anyone gets paid are factored in through statistical analyses, the purported gender pay gap either vanishes or — depending on the variables in the data set under analysis — virtually vanishes. When apples are compared to apples, the purported gender pay gap vanishes.
Most analyses conclude that it is choices such as choice of college major, choice of occupation, or choice of hours worked that most powerfully determine pay — not gender. To illustrate this point, when is the last time you heard NOW (National Organization For Women) demand equal numbers of female coal miners or equal numbers of female oil riggers, or even equal numbers of female long-haul truck drivers.
All this and more is why Congress should NOT pass the alleged Paycheck Fairness Act — which truly is not fair by any stretch of the imagination.
Gordon E. Finley, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology Emeritus
Florida International University
Miami
faculty web site: http://psychology.fiu.edu/faculty/gordon-finley/
Also see:
April 9, 2014, Senate refuses to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/09/senate-falls-six-votes-short-of-passing-paycheck-fairness-act/
Department of Labor 2009 report article: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/04/2009-dol-report-found-that-gender-wage-differences-are-explained-by-individual-choices-of-male-and-female-workers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+aei-ideas%2Fcarpe-diem+%28AEIdeas+%C2%BB+Carpe+Diem%29
Video discussion about the issues: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/04/thomas-sowell-discusses-the-gender-pay-gap/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+aei-ideas%2Fcarpe-diem+%28AEIdeas+%C2%BB+Carpe+Diem%29
Fortunately the US Senate rallied to defeat the Paycheck Fairness Act which would have discriminated against men.
