I weighed in on a discussion on the pay gap, with this:

"Should people in the same job, producing the same results, be paid the same thing? Absolutely.

Should women have an equal shot at getting high-paid jobs as men? Of course.

The problem is that the majority of the wage gap is not explained by these factors, it's because men and women make different choices about their careers. Men generally work longer hours, take less time off to raise a family, work in more dangerous jobs and are at much greater risk of workplace injuries, for example.

Comparing average male earnings to average female earnings is meaningless unless the two groups are making the same choices, which they aren't."

I was asked to quote my sources, so I went on:

"That's fine.

First of all, I'd like to direct your attention to this report from the ONS: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_256900.pdf

It makes for interesting reading, this is what I take away from it: Across industries, there is a gender pay gap of around 10% Even across similar roles, there is still a gap.

So what explains this?

Even though the workforce is almost 50:50 male to female workers, 88% of men work full-time, whereas this is true for 58% of women.

This is why a direct comparison is meaningless – saying that on average men earn more tells us nothing unless we take hours worked into account. Thus, tables such as 'Gender pay gap for median and mean hourly earnings, excluding overtime' are more hard to interpret. With full-time workers being paid a higher hourly rate than part-time workers, and males making up the majority of full-time workers (61% of them), this will skew the average in their favour. An interesting side note is that in part-time work, where women make up the majority of the workforce, the pay-gap is reversed, with males trailing by 5%.

Next, direct your attention to The make-up of earnings, Components of full-time mean weekly earnings. This table show how a much larger share of men's earnings are made up of overtime, bonuses and shift work, than women.

Below this, we also see how the average hours worked for full-time employees is 40.2 hours for men and 37.4 hours for women, a 7% difference in favour of males. We also see how 22% of men worked paid overtime, compared to 11% of women.

As for workplace dangers, please see here: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/tables/index.htm

Specifically 'Age and gender of injured person'

Figures for 2010/11 show that 119 men died at work. This compares to a single female. It also shows that injury numbers are roughly double for men than women, at almost double the rate. If this is not a clear indication that men are in more danger at work, then I don't know what will convince you. Naturally I wish we could eliminate ALL workplace injuries and accidents, but why are men so much more affected?

Could it be because they dominate trades such as construction, and agriculture, which are some of the most dangerous?

I don't have figures for taking family leave to hand, but I hope this goes a little way to explaining my position.

I want to re-iterate this though – I firmly believe that everyone deserves equal pay for equal work, irrespective of gender. I think that people should only ever be promoted on merit and we have to make sure there is no glass ceiling for anyone based on gender, class or any other characteristic. What I object to is not taking into account the complex reasons why the pay gap exists, simply comparing averages is meaningless. The real question is, are women in the same job as men, producing equally competent results, being paid the same? If not, then they are protected by legislation that must be enforced. If the difference is that women are not working the higher-paid but more dangerous jobs, then they should be free to take them if they want to. "

So, what I want to ask you all is this:

Do you think my arguments are valid ones? Are there any problems with my logic? How did I do overall? :-)