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By STEVE TOBAK / MONEYWATCH / March 8, 201 1 , 9:1 5 A M

The Gender Pay Gap is a Complete Myth

According to all the media headlines about a new White House report, there's still a big pay gap between men and women in America. The report found that women earn 75 cents for every dollar men make. Sounds pretty conclusive, doesn't it? Well, it's not. It's misleading. According to highly acclaimed career expert and best-selling author, Marty Nemko, "The data is clear that for the same work men and women are paid roughly the same. The media need to look beyond the claims of feminist organizations." On a radio talk show, Nemko clearly and forcefully debunked that ultimate myth - that women make less than men - by explaining why, when you compare apples to apples, it simply isn't

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true. Even the White House report: Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being explains why. Simply put, men choose higher-paying jobs. Here are 8 reasons why the widely accepted and reported concept that women are paid less than men is a myth. The timing couldn't be better - today's International Women's Day 2011. What better time to empower women with the truth instead of treating them like victims. And, in case you're wondering, Nemko's source of information is primarily the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - rock solid.

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Why the Gender Pay Gap is a Complete Myth Men are far more likely to choose careers that are more dangerous, so they naturally pay more. Top 10 most dangerous jobs (from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics): Fishers, loggers, aircraft pilots, farmers and ranchers, roofers, iron and steel workers, refuse and recyclable material collectors, industrial machinery installation and repair, truck drivers, construction laborers. They're all male-dominated jobs. Men are far more likely to work in higher-paying fields and occupations (by choice). According to the White House report, "In 2009, only 7 percent of female professionals were employed in the relatively high paying computer and engineering fields, compared with 38 percent of male professionals." Professional women, on the other hand, are far more prevalent "in the relatively low-paying education and health care occupations." Men are far more likely to take work in uncomfortable, isolated, and undesirable locations that pay more.Men work longer hours than women do. The average fulltime working man works 6 hours per week or 15 percent longer than the average fulltime working woman. Men are more likely to take jobs that require work on weekends and evenings and therefore pay more. Even within the same career category, men are more likely to pursue high-stress and higher-paid areas of specialization . For example, within the medical profession, men gravitate to relatively high-stress and high-paying

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areas of specialization, like surgery, while women are more likely to pursue relatively lower-paid areas of specialization like pediatrician or dentist. Despite all of the above, unmarried women who've never had a child actually earn more than unmarried men , according to Nemko and data compiled from the Census Bureau. Women business owners make less than half of what male business owners make, which, since they have no boss, means it's independent of discrimination. The reason for the disparity, according to a Rochester Institute of Technology study, is that money is the primary motivator for 76% of men versus only 29% of women. Women place a higher premium on shorter work weeks, proximity to home, fulfillment, autonomy, and safety, according to Nemko. It's hard to argue with Nemko's position which, simply put, is this: When women make the same career choices as men, they earn the same amount as men. As far as I'm concerned, this is one myth that has been officially and completely busted. Maybe you should celebrate International Women's Day 2011 by empowering women with the truth instead of treating them like victims ... which they're not. Update 3/18/11: A reader was kind enought to send me a link to "An Analysis of Reasons for the Disparity in Wages Between Men and Women" prepared, under contract, for the U.S. Department of Labor in 1/09: "This study leads to the unambiguous conclusion that the differences in the compensation of men and women are the result of a multitude of factors and that the raw wage gap should not be used as the basis to justify corrective action. Indeed, there may be nothing to correct. The differences in raw wages may be almost entirely the result of the individual choices being made by both male and female workers." Update 4/16/11: There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap - Carrie Lukas, The Wall Street Journal.

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View all articles by Steve Tobak on CBS MoneyWatch Steve Tobak is a consultant and former high-tech senior executive. He's managing partner of Invisor Consulting, a management consulting and business strategy firm. Contact Steve or follow him on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

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13 Comments
BEATMASTERMATT says:

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Yeah, but are there any studies that look at how men and women are paid for working the exact same job? Obviously they would have to look at the private sector.
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GUNNYSARGENT says:

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Check this bozo...I'm a female in a dangerous career field. I'm not even offered the same amount as guys are because its automatically assumed that I can't. After

twenty years experience and a masters degree, I still have dick weeds explaining lefty Lucy, righty tidy. Even in engineering school--a prof said, "why bother, you are just going to go get married." Compare apples to apples if you are going to compare. Most women don't sit around in the circle jerk spitting their ego...thus its assumed they don't have confidence. Most women aren't allowed to perform because guys won't let them. If a woman makes it through in a technical career field, she gives up family and is so hardened by the time she gets there that she loses a piece of her self. Thus women bail...because engineering is miserable....for men and women and unless the attitude changes, the US will continue to lose good women in the career field not because they can't, but because they don't want to accept the lower pay and then be expected to work twice as hard, just for it to be dismissed as luck.....Its a crying shame that we still can't judge people by what they contribute but we pay people based on who we like, and how big their mouth is, or gender or color...not based on talent...I'm ashamed to be in the business....at least driving a truck, they don't give a damn about gender because you get paid based on years experience....
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KAY123BEE456 replies:

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Isn't it "lefty loosey" and "righty tighty"? As in, "turn to the left to loosen" and "turn to the right to tighten"?

KAY123BEE456 replies:

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Isn't it "lefty loosey" and "righty tighty"? As in, "turn to the left to loosen" and "turn to the right to tighten"?

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FEMINIST_HATER says:

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So if a man & a woman are picking fruit, and the man picks more fruit than the women, the employer has to pay them the same because she has a v@gina? Or if the woman picks more fruit, does she have to be paid the same as the man? It all seems great, but equal work is required for equal pay - b!atches!
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DAVIDMEC says:

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To many feminists organizations, women's personal choice is the problem. By choosing lower paying jobs they are choosing slavery (wage subservience to men). And it is their job, to encourage (or severely discourage women from not), taking higher paying jobs. Gender roles are evil, because it is a sign of a Misogynist society.
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THISISNOISE16 replies:

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Gender roles are evil, but it's not a misogynist society if it's the women who are oppressing themselves, in some ways. Or at least not misogyny in the general sense of MEN hating women. If anything it's misandry for women giving men the blame for a misleading "wage gap" that men didn't cause.

TRYBROW replies:

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Gender roles are with us because physical attributes between the genders are distinctive and different. In a world where survival of the species relied on the most effective division of labour based on those attributes, women became the home maker and men became the warrior. Cultures that did not have this division found their reproductive bottleneck hindered their ability to survive. Whilst 1 man can impregnate 20 women, a society reduced in its female demographic due to war fatalities is numerically at a disadvantage. Please try to learn more about gender roles and find out why they may not be evil but in fact a successful survival strategy that you

have to thank for your existence here right now.

BROOKELEEE says:

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Women HATE hearing the truth: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=y5OdQGbVNa4

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FIREX726 says:

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Great piece, I'd love to see more of this same caliber.

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MALEMATTERS says:

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Good analysis, Steve. I'll add my usual boiler-plate: No law yet has closed the gender wage gap — not the 1963 Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, not Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, not the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, not the 1991 amendments to Title VII, not affirmative action (which has benefited mostly white women, the group most vocal about the wage gap - http://*******.com/74cooen), not diversity, not the countless state and local laws and regulations, not the horde of overseers at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and not the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.... Nor will a "paycheck fairness" law work. That's because pay-equity advocates continue to overlook the effects of female AND male behavior: Despite the 40-year-old demand for women's equal pay, millions of wives still choose to have no pay at all. In fact, according to Dr. Scott Haltzman, author of "The Secrets of Happily Married Women," stay-at-home wives, including the

childless who represent an estimated 10 percent, constitute a growing niche. "In the past few years," he says in a CNN report at http://*******.com/6reowj, "many women who are well educated and trained for career tracks have decided instead to stay at home." ("Census Bureau data show that 5.6 million mothers stayed home with their children in 2005, about 1.2 million more than did so a decade earlier...." at http://*******.com/qqkaka. If indeed more women are staying at home, perhaps it's because feminists and the media have told women for years that female workers are paid less than men in the same jobs — so why bother working if they're going to be penalized and humiliated for being a woman. Yet, if "greedy, profit-obsessed" employers could get away with paying women less than men for the same work, they would not hire a man - ever.) As full-time mothers or homemakers, stay-at-home wives earn zero. How can they afford to do this while in many cases living in luxury? Because they're supported by their husband, an "employer" who pays them to stay at home. Feminists, government, and the media ignore what this obviously implies: If millions of wives are able to accept no wages and live as well as their husbands, millions of other wives are able to: -accept low wages -refuse overtime and promotions -choose jobs based on interest first, pay second — men tend to do the opposite -work part-time instead of full-time ("According to a 2009 UK study for the Centre for Policy Studies, only 12 percent of the 4,690 women surveyed wanted to work full time": http://******/ihc0tl See also an Australian report at http://*******.com/862kzes) -take more unpaid days off -avoid uncomfortable wage-bargaining (http://*******.com/3a5nlay) All of which LOWER WOMEN'S AVERAGE PAY. Women are able to make these choices because they are supported — or anticipate being supported — by a husband who must earn more than if he'd chosen never to marry. (Still, even many men who shun marriage, unlike their female counterparts, feel their self worth is tied to their net worth.) This is how MEN help create the wage gap. If the roles were reversed so that men raised the

children and women raised the income, men would average lower pay than women. Afterword: The power in money is not in earning it (there is only responsibility, sweat, and stress in earning money). The power in money is in SPENDING it. And, Warren Farrell says in The Myth of Male Power at http://www.warrenfarrell.org/TheBook/index.html, "Women control consumer spending by a wide margin in virtually every consumer category." (Women's control over spending, adds Farrell, gives women control over TV programs.) "A recent research study revealed that the average woman spends eight years of her life shopping [spending] -- over 300 shopping trips per year. Men, only a fraction of that." http://www.terryoreilly.ca/blog/show/id/78 Excerpted from "Will the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Help Women?" at http://malemattersusa.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/will-the-ledbetter-fair-pay-acthelp-women/
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