Equal Pay Day and Hillary Clinton

Last week, on Equal Pay Day, Hillary Clinton trotted out her consistently false claim that women only make 77 cents on the dollar when compared to men.  Seriously?  Does anyone really think that employers across this nation are underpaying women by 23% and, by doing so, are in direct violation of the federal law entitled the Equal Pay Act of 1963? And, further, those employers are doing it right under the noses of the very federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which is tasked with insuring that pay discrimination doesn't exist on the basis gender, race, age, or religion. If pay discrimination by sex was so prevalent in this nation, why is it that the EEOC only litigated 26,396 sex discrimination cases last year, of which, only 29.5% were charged as violations of the law.  By Hillary's way of thinking, there should have been millions of cases, with most of them found guilty of discrimination; not just 29.5%.

Here's the truth.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in its latest annual report for 2014 titled Highlights of Women's Earnings, women made an average of 83 cents on the dollar when compared to men; up from 82 cents and 81 cents in 2013 and 2012, respectively.  So, one has to wonder where Hillary got the 77 cents number which she has been repeating for years. Now, you have to understand that this number is an aggregate total of women's wages across all professions that women work in, compared to the aggregate total of wages across all the professions that men work in.

The simple truth is that men gravitate to higher paying jobs while women gravitate towards lower paying jobs.  For example, the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor, reports that, of the leading 20 jobs held by women, 96% of secretaries are women.  Additionally, women hold 84% of clerk positions; 95% of childcare workers;  71% of waiter/waitresses; and 89% of maids and housekeepers.  On the other hand, women only make up 12% to 39% of high paying jobs in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; otherwise known as STEM jobs.  Just 36% of women hold a Master of Business Administration (MBA).  A graduate degree that is both highly prized by businesses and well compensated.

Also, there are additional factors that can lower a woman's pay.  For example, women who leave the workforce to raise a family, and then, years later return, will see their pay lowered.  This is why on Table 1 of the "Highlights" report (linked below) and before age 35, women earn 91 cents compared to men.  After 35, the number drops to 81 cents.  But, for women "Never Married", the comparative number is high at 94 cents.  This is also why nearly 80% of part time workers are women, enabling them to  still take care of their families while earning additional wages.  Women also work 52 minutes less per workday than men, and for hourly workers, this represents a 12% drop in average incomes.

The issue here is that Hillary wants women to think they are all victims and, as such, she would be the perfect candidate to take on wage discrimination.  But, unless Hillary can force women to work more hours, seek higher degrees, higher paying jobs, and stop raising families, zero income inequality isn't going to happen.  So, women!  Don't look at the guy working right next to you and think he's making 23% more than you are.  It's a just a political lie!

References:

2016: Equal Pay Day: Hillary Clinton praises members of US women’s football team who are suing for equal pay: A woman in the US earns 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes, on broad average, and women of ethnic minorities earn much less:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/equal-pay-day-hillary-clinton-praises-megan-rapinoe-women-football-players-suing-for-equal-pay-a6981046.html

2007: Last month, Sen. Hillary Clinton expressed consternation that women continue to make "just 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes": http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/02/AR2007040201262.html

Equal Pay Act of 1963 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Pay_Act_of_1963

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Employment_Opportunity_Commission

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: https://www.eeoc.gov/

Enforcement & Litigation Statistics: https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/charges.cfm

Women's Bureau: 20 Leading Occupations of Employed Women 2010 Annual Averages (employment in thousands): http://www.dol.gov/wb/factsheets/20lead2010_txt.htm

Highlights of women’s earnings in 2014: http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/womens-earnings/archive/highlights-of-womens-earnings-in-2014.pdf

Time spent working by full- and part-time status, gender, and location in 2014: http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/time-spent-working-by-full-and-part-time-status-gender-and-location-in-2014.htm

The Gender Scorecard for Business Schools: http://poetsandquants.com/2015/05/02/a-gender-scorecard-for-business-schools/

Women Still Underrepresented in STEM Fields: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/10/21/women-still-underrepresented-in-stem-fields

Fact Checking Obama's Statement on Women and Income Inequality

While there were dozens of half-truth's and outright lies that I could have written about following the President's State of the Union address, none are more outrageous than these two minutes:

First of all, the fact that women only make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns would be an accurate statement if we were all listening to his speech in 2004.  If the President took the time to read the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report on this exact topic, he would have read the following on the very first page:

 "In 1979, women working full time earned 62 percent of what men did; in 2011, women’s earnings were 82 percent of men’s."

And, that 82 percent is up from 81 percent in the previous year.

More importantly, the 82 percent number doesn't even come close to justifying Obama's statement that women should get equal pay for equal work.  That's because it is an average of all kinds of jobs that are held by the two sexes.  For example, more men work in higher paying heavy equipment and construction jobs than women; while woman dominate in lower paying positions such as cashiers, waitresses, and housekeepers.  Often, women choose these lower paying jobs because they give them more flexibility to care for their families.  In terms of college degrees, the highest paying jobs are in engineering.  Yet, less than 20% of those holding those degrees are women.

Now in terms of income inequality, the President seems to have conveniently forgotten that "he" signed  the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law in 2009.  Along with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act in 1963, the Ledbetter law insures that woman have the right to sue whenever there is "true" income equality.  "True" meaning that the income disparity isn't as a result of differences in skill, responsibility, merit raises, or seniority.

Then there was the statement that a woman deserves to be able to have a baby without losing her job.  Well, again, Obama has forgotten that we already have a law that protects women from that, or even as a result of having to take care of a sick family member.  It's called the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.  The overview of that law is as follows:

• Twelve workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for:
• the birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth;
• the placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care and to care for the newly placed child within one year of placement;
• to care for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition;
• a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job;
• any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on “covered active duty;” 

The concept of equal pay for equal work is the basis of socialism and unionization and not capitalism.  So, yes, a woman might be paid less than a male coworker because of a lack of things like education/experience, responsibility, seniority, or merit raises.  At the same time, two men, working the same job, might also be paid differently for the very same reasons.  That's why, to my knowledge, there hasn't been a slew of lawsuits being filed since the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was passed.

Once again, this President is distorting the facts in order to garner women's votes; and, he knows quite well that many woman (and, of course men, too) won't fact check all his lies.

References:

BLS Reports: Women in the Workplace: February 2013: http://www.bls.gov/cps/wlf-databook-2012.pdf

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilly_Ledbetter_Fair_Pay_Act_of_2009

Equal Pay Act of 1963: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Pay_Act_of_1963 

U.S. Department of Labor: Family and Medical Leave Act: http://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/

Engineering by the Numbers: http://www.asee.org/papers-and-publications/publications/college-profiles/2011-profile-engineering-statistics.pdf

Which College Degrees Earn the Highest Wages?: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/5-best-and-worst-paying-college-degrees/