The Gender Pay Gap Closes for the Third Year in a Row

In this election year, expect Democrats -- especially Hillary Clinton -- to make "equal pay for equal work" a campaign issue in order to garner women's votes.  In doing so, also expect them to trot out the old statistic that women only make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes.  But, that 77 cent claim hasn't existed since before 2002 when women, for the first time, made 78 cents on the dollar.  An example of this is Hillary tweet made in 2014:

That is totally false; and of course, nearly 10,000 followers liked it ("Likes") and apparently believe it to be the truth.  At least Obama has given up on the 77 cent claim.  Now, he's using 78 cents.

Here's the truth.

In November of 2015, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published its latest report on women's pay titled "Highlights of Women's Earnings for 2014" and women reached a new milestone; making 83 cents for every dollar a man made.  This is up from 82 cents in 2013 and 81 cents in 2012.  So, neither Hillary nor Obama have an excuse for not knowing the true number.  Also understand that 83 cents is a 34% improvement in pay disparity in the last 35 years when, in 1979, women made just 62 cents on the dollar.  That's almost a one percent improvement per year.

Additionally, in Table 1 of that report, women -- before the age of 35 -- made between 89.9% and 92.3% of what men made.  The reason that is significant is the fact that, prior to that age, many women leave the workforce to raise a family.  Upon return, they have lost all the pay raises and seniority that they may have enjoyed while they where gone; and, basically, they wind up starting all over again in their chosen career fields with lower pay.

The simple truth is that Democrats prefer to lie about the size of the pay disparity between the sexes in order to enhance the victimization of women in the workforce.  It's all about politics and votes, and not the truth.  Also, the closing of the gender gap was a result of economic forces and not because of anything that the federal government did.  If it had, you know Barack Obama would be front and center taking credit for it.


References:

Highlights of Women's Earnings for 2014: http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/cps/highlights-of-womens-earnings-in-2014.pdf

Hillary's Tweet on Women's Pay: https://twitter.com/hillaryclinton/status/453688842621431808?lang=en

The ‘Equal Pay Day’ factoid that women make 78 cents for every dollar earned by men: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/04/02/the-equal-pay-day-factoid-that-women-make-78-cents-for-every-dollar-earned-by-men/

President Obama gives up 77 cent wage gap statistic: https://www.whitehouse.gov/equal-pay/career 

Highlights of Women's Earnings for 2013: http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/cps/highlights-of-womens-earnings-in-2013.pdf

Highlights of Women's Earnings for 2012: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswom2012.pdf

Highlights of Women's Earnings for 2002: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswom2002.pdf

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Mitt Romney's Gender Gap Problem?

In 1980, Ronald Reagan won handily over Jimmy Carter by 10 percentage points; 51% to 41%.  This was despite the fact that exit polling showed that women, by a spread of 7 percentage points,  overwhelmingly voted for the loser in that contest. So, decidedly, it was a lopsided men's vote that did Carter in.

Right now, pundits and media are making a lot out of the fact that Mitt Romney is lagging behind Barack Obama when it comes to the women's vote; as if this so-called "Gender Gap" never existed before. The reality is that every Republican candidate for president has had to face the same lack of women voters.  That's because, over the years, Democrats have been successful in catering to women's needs and fears by providing one new social or safety net program after another. This election year is no different with Obama targeting the women's vote with "free" contraception. Yet, in modern times, Republicans have managed to win this nation's top job fifty percent of the time. And, in each case where a Republican won, it was the men  who became the deciding factor.

One thing we know from the Carter/Reagan match-up is that men break late for one candidate or the other. In 1980, right up to the election, most polls had Carter in the lead.  Yet, when was all said and done, Carter lost by a landslide.  That may be because men, with their alpha dog mentality, saw Carter as being the weaker of the two candidates.

I personally think that this year's election will be a repeat of the Carter loss; with men breaking decidedly for Romney on the day of the election.  And, like the 1980 election, the women's vote will be less important than how men view the electoral match-up. Obama is "a" weak, not-able-to-get-things-done leader; just like Carter. The classic male mentality rejects such weakness.  Men don't want hear constant excuses and blame for things not getting done; and, that's all Obama does.  Whereas, Romney has a proven track record of accomplishment.  To me, all this talk of the gender gap is an attempt by Obama-loyalists to psych Americans into believing the Romney can't win because he doesn't have the women's vote.  But, we know from history that's just not true. That's why I think that, barring any major misstep by Romney, Obama is likely to follow in Carter's footsteps as a one-term president.