Because of the recent confession bear claiming that women get paid less than men for the same job, I think it's important for everyone to know it isn't true. - [4:00] (found in /r/videos)

Pecanpig · 2013-07-26T18:58:09+00:00

Great video. He touched on this, but the way most career paths work is that the pay starts to ramp up dramatically after a long time of being dedicated to that industry. The point where most women either switch to part time or just check out of work to raise a kid (around 30) is right before the ramp-up tends to happen. Meaning that when you compare 40 year old guys to 40 year old women, there is a decent sized difference in their salaries, which skews the "wage gap" results.

This result will be very different in 20 or so years when this generation (the generation where 61% of college grads are women and women have higher out of college salaries) reaches the peak in their careers. Couple that with the societal trend of women turning down family expectations for their career (which I'm on-board with, if they make that choice, then good for them), and a completely different gender dynamic is already in the works.

But the fundamental concepts of economics - namely opportunity cost - will always exist. Any time spent doing X activity will always come at the cost of not being able to spend that time doing Y activity. Trying to fight this fundamental reality by artificially inflating women's wages so that they can take time off to have a kid, but still make as much as the guy who was slaving away at the office is a denial of reality. We have to accept that women are responsible for their choices - if they consistently choose the paths that lead to a lower earning potential, then society is not to blame.

chocoboat · 2013-07-26T18:13:10+00:00

This is by far the best video I've seen that explains the true wage gap.

Miliean · 2013-07-26T19:18:10+00:00

The best argument that the wage gap is false is the fact that there are no companies taking advantage of it. Think of the savings is a company were to hire only women. They would save 20%-20% on salaries and get the same output!

Given as this does not happen, you are faced with the question of why. Is it because managers prefer to hire men more than they like money? Even if that were true for some, you would still find at least one firm only willing to hire women. Hell,if even 10% of companies prioritize profits over social norms you would find a hell of a lot of employers only willing to hire women.

Since we don't see this, we are forced to come to the conclusion that corporate heads do not care about profit, or the wage gap does not exist in the way we think it does. Given the body of evidence that has accumulated, I think it's the latter.

ILoveHate · 2013-07-26T17:18:40+00:00

We already know and I really wish more companies took the "equal work for equal pay" to heart. And what I mean by this is very easy to notice if you take a trip to costco, walmart, target, etc. You'll have female and male retail workers. The women fold clothes and stock some of the shelves. The men unload merchandise from trucks and stock some of the shelves. Equal work my ass.

Master565 · 2013-07-26T17:06:19+00:00

There were a few good links from the videos thread, such as this other source, the actual study, and the wikipedia article on it.

Also, the original confession bear post.

Another article supporting it

Another article saying the opposite

Luxpreliator · 2013-07-26T20:24:44+00:00

Nearly every school teacher I had complained about how they received an unfair discriminatory wage, 3/4 of what a male teacher would get. I believed it and felt bad for them because that seemed completely wrong.

Only recently did I discover that the perceived wage gap is due to the most uninformed statistic, it is a complete flat average across everything. It would be like complaining about receiving an unfair salary as a physical trainer for an NBA franchise because with the salaries of the players averaged in I'd be making like 5% of the average salary for all the employees.

I'm not quite mad about it but it is really disappointing that something so purposely deceptive gets promoted as gospel truth and for so long. Time gets wasted dealing with an imaginary issue when there are real problems elsewhere.

Everything_Is_Rape · 2013-07-26T17:28:42+00:00

The wage gap is rape

2013-07-26T21:36:56+00:00

Example: Mining.

Death rate in Aus 50-60 people annually source

Pay for non-managers average is $124K source

Women in mining in Australia - 11% source

Construction workers

Do you think I need to continue for people to get the point?

2013-07-26T16:16:31+00:00

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billet · 2013-07-26T19:04:51+00:00

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Deport777 · 2013-07-26T19:30:25+00:00

Equal pay for Equal work. If I have to carry 5000 pounds worth of equipment in a day, and you have to carry a few 3 pound boxes of staples... Well we are doing the same work, carrying shit. However I obviously deserve more money. If women were given jobs that men do at the same degree men do them, then they can get paid the same.

I do believe women should however be paid less in almost all corporate or career oriented fields. As a vast majority of women will focus on love, getting/having children, and raising them. These are not ideal for a world of careers. Now don't mistake me, if you work up until your water breaks and come back within 3 days of giving birth, then by all means take my equal wage. However don't take 6 months off, usually with some form of payment, and expect me to EVER recognize you as equal pay material... Especially since it can happen again.

I do believe however women that are over a certain age and can no longer give birth with fully raised or an absence of children can be put in the same field of pay and responsibilities given their odds of dropping out for something like "I can't leave my child at an insanely cheap day care that is open from dawn till dusk and complete my responsibilities in a timely manner."

However the worst of the worst is how women have better job security, I mean this seriously. A woman with no experience on the job is harder to fire than a serious male employee of 5-10 years... Why is this? One the false claims of sexual harassment, wrongful termination taken seriously if she claims it's because she's a woman rather than shitty at her job, possibility of claiming unwanted sex with her job on the line, actually sleeping with the boss, and so many more things.

ChaoticGood_Guy_Greg · 2013-07-26T20:38:32+00:00

"But he's a man clearly he is biased and his facts and figures hold no value what so ever" -just about every feminist ever.

uton_gili · 2013-07-26T22:32:13+00:00

My wife started a join at tree same time as two guys. They had the same level of experience and the same degrees. We found out much later that she made more than either of them when she made a general "men make more then women" rant at a party one night in front of one of the guys in accounting who had to explain why he was laughing so hard. She was just a better negotiator.

2013-07-26T16:27:41+00:00

Just seen this in /r/videos and came here to x-post. Well, you were faster. Upvote.

kurtu5 · 2013-07-26T22:35:43+00:00

Isn't there a study that shows that 20 something, never married women make significantly more than never married males?

philinspirit · 2013-07-27T04:15:36+00:00

I think the video is right on. It sure has been frustrating to hear over and over again about how women earn 75% (they used to say 60%) of what men earn because of discrimination in the workplace, when everyday experience in the workplace has told us this could not be true. We could observe women making the choices the video talks about, could clearly see that this explained their lower overall earnings, and yet none of the "experts" seemed to be able to see this. A couple of other points: (1) in the US, if women are paid less for the same work they have a great basis for a lucrative lawsuit. Lawyers love these claims because they are easy to prove relative to other forms of discrimination, yet such lawsuits are uncommon. (2) The choices that women make that tend to depress their wages are not equally available to men. If men try to stay home with the kids, work part time, or work in professions dominated by women, they encounter plenty of subtle and not-so-subtle discrimination -- I know this from personal experience.

1standarduser · 2013-07-26T18:53:41+00:00

Women get an average of 98% of men's pay, but this is NOT equal.

Can a woman stack as many blocks as a man in the same time period?

If a man stacks 2x the blocks, then he is getting 50% of the pay.

masterofthehaus · 2013-07-26T19:37:03+00:00

I just learned that US doesn’t have maternity leave. Of course that creates a gap…if there was maternity leave subsidized childcare, wouldn’t the gap mostly disappear?

illTwinkleYourStar · 2013-07-26T22:17:24+00:00

I don't blame the guy in the video, of course, but I object to the definition of human capital not including the skills and lessons learned by parenting and having a family. It devalues those skills, which ARE marketable, in my opinion. And leads to nobody wanting to do them, men or women.

Basically, I think we need to stop being ashamed of procreating and valuing our families.

unassuming_aussie · 2013-07-27T13:40:45+00:00

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