I have an issue with this site that is being cited as an actual source of information: National Committee on Pay Equity
https://archive.today/lOCsg

The problem is that it is misinformation that uses the median pay of all full time workers ie not accounting for overtime or differences in profession.

Among other complete nonsense on the site, this caught my eye:

"Polling Data Shows Overwhelming Support of Paycheck Fairness Act
In a 2010 nationwide poll of registered voters, 84% supported "a new law that would provide women more tools to get fair pay in the workplace." When poll respondents were told that the "law will also make it harder for employers to justify paying different wages for the same work and ensure that businesses that break the law compensate women fairly," 72% strongly supported such a law. This support was consistent across lines of gender, race, geographic regions, and political parties."

So, if Equal Pay Act of 1963 exists what are these people supporting?

Answer: they don't know.

this was the Paycheck Fairness Act and it was discussed here last year, it was a bill that "punishes employers for retaliating against workers who share wage information" among other things

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_Fairness_Act
"newer studies suggest, when the data is controlled for certain variables, the residual gap is around 7%, the same study concludes that the residual is due to the fact that "hours of work in many occupations are worth more when given at particular moments and when the hours are more continuous. That is, in many occupations earnings have a nonlinear relationship with respect to hours."
ie overtime at time and a half, time and a third, unsociable hours etc pay more... and who does that? oh yeah, mostly men. not exactly news to anyone on this sub

but what really is the issue with the law (in the US)?
"In order to find an employer in violation of the Equal Pay Act, a plaintiff must prove that
"(1) the employer pays different wages to employees of the opposite sex;
(2) the employees perform equal work on jobs requiring equal skill, effort, and responsibility;
and (3) the jobs are performed under similar working conditions."
which makes total sense - are you being paid differently for the same job? If the answer is no, then there isn't a problem, there is no discrimination

TL;DR

  • even when equality is law, people want to believe the gender wage gap
  • be wary of the National Committee on Pay Equity, which deftly obfuscates the truth