- Joined
- Jul 14, 2016
I always thought the 'wage gap' factored in things like how women are more likely to stay at home to watch the children, taking part time/temp work to supplement the family income, or being less likely to negotiate a raise. I don't know, I've never seen an actual study as to where these figures come from. It's just what I figured would be the outcome of averaging all working aged men and women. I never took it as a company hiring a man and a woman to the exact same role and just paying a man $10/hr while only giving the woman $7.70/hr. I take this idea as more of motivation to not be afraid to ask for a higher wage and to actually talk to your co-workers about the kind of money that they make. Because regardless of gender, companies will try to negotiate your wages down and maybe women are more easily talked down or are willing to take less due to their situation.
Or I guess I could just bitch about it on twitter, idk.
The wage gap argument is often made from a misinterpretation of statistics (or I think the willful corruption). When you look at the stats overall men make more money. Those stats are looking at age groups and career fields, not specifics like specific jobs. You are lumping men who make 150k on an oil field at 26 with women who are teaching at 26 and making 35k. Often when companies actually sit down and compare wages for specific jobs, women are making the same. Occasionally companies, I think Google ran into this recently, find that women are making more because their hr has been too aggressive and ignored true evidence and bought into the wage gap.