Are Women Paid Less? Try This: Supply, Demand, Some Assembly Required

Posted on | March 20, 2016 | 41 Comments

Women’s median annual earnings stubbornly remain about 20 percent below men’s. Why is progress stalling?
It may come down to this troubling reality, new research suggests: Work done by women simply isn’t valued as highly. . . .
A new study from researchers at Cornell University found that the difference between the occupations and industries in which men and women work has recently become the single largest cause of the gender pay gap, accounting for more than half of it. In fact, another study shows, when women enter fields in greater numbers, pay declines — for the very same jobs that more men were doing before. . . .
Once women start doing a job, “It just doesn’t look like it’s as important to the bottom line or requires as much skill,” said Paula England, a sociology professor at New York University. “Gender bias sneaks into those decisions.” . . .

(Yeah, this makes sense. When you need someone to explain economics, the expert you want to call is a sociology professor.)

Over all, in fields where men are the majority, the median pay is $962 a week — 21 percent higher than in occupations with a majority of women, according to another new study, published Friday by Third Way . . .
Of the 30 highest-paying jobs, including chief executive, architect and computer engineer, 26 are male-dominated, according to Labor Department data analyzed by Emily Liner, the author of the Third Way report. Of the 30 lowest-paying ones, including food server, housekeeper and child-care worker, 23 are female dominated.

Emily Liner attended Georgetown University (annual tuition $48,611) where she majored in history and French. A former staffer for a Democrat congressmen, Liner worked five years for a Democrat Party fundraising consultant, before going back to get her MBA at the University of North Carolina. She is now a “policy advisor” for Third Way, a tax-exempt organization which in 2013 had a budget of nearly $10 million, and paid its eight top officers a combined total of $1.7 million, led by president Jonathan Cowan’s $336,000 compensation. (Of the eight officers listed on Third Way’s IRS Form 990, only two are women. But maybe “gender bias sneaks into those decisions,” eh?) Cowan, who worked for Democrat congressmen and served in the Clinton administration, then started a gun-control organization (Americans for Gun Safety) that after the 2004 election became Third Way.

All of which is to say that this “news article” — published on the front page of the business section of the Sunday New York Times — is really just a regurgitated press release from a Democrat propaganda operation. This article is clearly intended to support the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign’s claim that the “gender gap” in pay is a real thing, which economists have repeatedly shown it is not. Controlling for various factors, including hours worked per week, women make about 95 cents for every dollar men earn, rather than the 77 cents claimed by feminists, whose answer to every policy issue is always the same: Vote Democrat!

Don’t be deceived by partisan propaganda disguised as “news.” To quote Christina Hoff Sommers, “this is a massively discredited factoid.”

Category: Economics, Media Bias, New York Times, Sex Trouble

Comments

41 Responses to “Are Women Paid Less? Try This: Supply, Demand, Some Assembly Required”

Dana
March 20th, 2016 @ 9:00 am

Construction jobs tend to pay pretty well . . . and there are few women in construction. The “sociologist” gives us one answer, but the most obvious one is that, with nearly half the labor force self-selecting against construction work, the supply of workers vis a vis the demand for workers has been limited.

In my thirty years in the field, I have suggested to women any times that they ought to get their CDLs and drive a dump truck, rather than settling for jobs working in convenience stores, because dump truck drivers get paid more. Few listened, even though women do just fine as commercial drivers; they tend to self-select against those jobs.

There are plenty of construction field jobs that women are physically strong enough to do: electricians, plumbers, finish carpentry, painting, siding installers, etc, but few take the steps to try to learn those jobs.
Constantine XI
March 20th, 2016 @ 9:51 am

Three words explain why women over time on average will make less than men:

women have babies
Factor out pregnancy and time off for children and you will find that women make as much or MORE on average than men.
DeadMessenger
March 20th, 2016 @ 10:01 am

I would always pick jobs with a majority of men in them, and not because of pay, but because of less drama. Plus, for obvious reasons, I’d rather look at men than women all day.

Not sure why more women don’t see things this way.
DeadMessenger
March 20th, 2016 @ 10:07 am

Once women start doing a job, “It just doesn’t look like it’s as important to the bottom line or requires as much skill,” said Paula England, a sociology professor at New York University.

This quote isn’t really contributing to my understanding, and it doesn’t take much skill to make a blanket statement, unsupported by statistics or research. So I’m totally dismissing it. I don’t know how much NYU is paying her, but it is probably too much.

/s
Steve Skubinna
March 20th, 2016 @ 11:03 am

If a business really could get the same work done for three quarters the cost, then why in hell would they ever hire any men at all?

Do you even economics, bro?
Jason Lee
March 20th, 2016 @ 11:34 am

Dirty, dangerous, unpleasant work? No way. Equal pay for easier work! That’s gender “equality”.
Jason Lee
March 20th, 2016 @ 11:40 am

Making babies? Actually, the women who read and write these articles aren’t doing much of that.
Steve Skubinna
March 20th, 2016 @ 12:44 pm

Yes, a web developer working 20 hours a week and at Starbucks another 20 needs to make the same pay as some guy on an oilfield supply boat dodging typhoons 24/7 in the South China Sea.

Because feminism!
Dianna Deeley
March 20th, 2016 @ 12:54 pm

Oh, for pity’s sake – if you have a skill that is rare and valued, I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman, you will be properly compensated. The greater your skill, the more unusual your skill-set, the better your pay. A skilled carpenter gets paid a lot more than the guy who can barely be trusted to use the nailgun properly. An executive assistant gets paid more than a receptionist. Let’s not be silly, all right?
Dianna Deeley
March 20th, 2016 @ 12:55 pm

Much too true.
RS
March 20th, 2016 @ 1:22 pm

Over all, in fields where men are the majority, the median pay is $962 a week — 21 percent higher than in occupations with a majority of women, according to another new study, published Friday by Third Way . . .

When the above sentence appears, doesn’t an editor worth his/her J-School diploma say, “No shit. What about within the various fields, regardless of whether there are male or female majorities? Do women neurosurgeons make less than male neurosurgeons of equal education and experience? How do unions affect the outcome? ”

In truth the entire “wage gap” myth collapses under the weight of its own economic illogic. If the nefarious cabal of employers could save 20 cents on the dollar by hiring only women and thereby the pocket the difference as profit, there wouldn’t be a single employed male in this country.
Dana
March 20th, 2016 @ 2:42 pm

I’m sure that’s what the Professional Feminists® think, but the real problem was a problem of culture and perception: very few women even consider such jobs as an option for them, and thus never try.
Dana
March 20th, 2016 @ 2:44 pm

Receptionist? What’s a receptionist?
DeadMessenger
March 20th, 2016 @ 2:46 pm

I think it could be the old, used up woman at the door of a whorehouse? Not sure, though.
Steve Skubinna
March 20th, 2016 @ 2:46 pm

Blanket statement unsupported by statistics or research.

Hmmm. You did see that she’s a sociology professor, right? You go into sociology because you want to pretend to be a scientist without all that icky math and stuff.
Steve Skubinna
March 20th, 2016 @ 2:48 pm

Why should they, when they are told that being an EEO specialist is just as important as being a welder?
concern00
March 20th, 2016 @ 3:44 pm

If more men were stupid enough to complete gender studies degrees I’m pretty sure we could start balancing the wage gap. Only in a socialist society would such useless degrees garner a wage of any kind.
Jason Lee
March 20th, 2016 @ 3:44 pm

Problem? It’s just as well that they don’t try.
Mr. Saturn
March 20th, 2016 @ 4:04 pm
Dana
March 20th, 2016 @ 4:33 pm

Why? I believe in letting anybody try to do his best, at whatever profession he chooses. If he succeeds. he succeeds, and if he fails, he fails.
Gospace
March 20th, 2016 @ 4:57 pm

I work as a stationary engineer. At any particular site, all the stationary engineers with the same length of employment make the same per hour. Known less then a handful of women in the field. Making the same per hour. But yet, over the course of a year, all the women I’ve known have made less then the men. Because when you call them for overtime- they turn it down. Taking one overtime shift a month vs. turning overtime down is going to make a significant difference in yearly pay.
Quartermaster
March 20th, 2016 @ 5:44 pm

There you go again! Using facts and logic is sexist and raciss! I denounce you energetically and forcefully for H8ty H8!
Quartermaster
March 20th, 2016 @ 5:48 pm

Some companies used to have beauty competitions to determine to babe that was placed hear the front door to receive visitors.

Seriously, I had a Japanese instructor for Engineering Economy back in the 80s who was a visiting Prof. He said that many Japanese companies actually required pics of the young women applying for work and they routinely selected the best looking to be receptionists. Of course, the Japs had a strong patriarchal culture. 🙂
Quartermaster
March 20th, 2016 @ 5:49 pm

Hey, now! She had Stat and conceptual Physics, I’d bet. Tough stuff, that.
Quartermaster
March 20th, 2016 @ 5:51 pm

She is a “sosh” prof, so if they pay her anything, they pay her too much.
Quartermaster
March 20th, 2016 @ 5:52 pm

And we should celebrate the fact they aren’t doing much of that.
Quartermaster
March 20th, 2016 @ 5:54 pm

Waitaminit! I Trademarked Professional Feminists™ and you’ll be hearing from my snake…er.. Lawyer, in the morning.
Quartermaster
March 20th, 2016 @ 5:55 pm

That’s the West Philippine Sea.
Quartermaster
March 20th, 2016 @ 5:58 pm

I had three classmates that were women at Tenn Tech. One was already married, the other two were engaged to be married and nailed the guys right after graduation. There was another 2 years behind me that went to the same church as I did. Don’t know if she married as she seemed to have no interest in guys at the time. She was a godly young woman and quite the looker too.
DeadMessenger
March 20th, 2016 @ 6:27 pm

I don’t like those voodoo, “make it up as you go along” fields of study. I mean, there’s some mildly interesting material there, I’ll give them that, but to major in it? And claim it as a career path? Seems kind of meh to me. I prefer fields in which in which one’s research documentation doesn’t begin with the equivalent of “From what I can tell, …”
DeadMessenger
March 20th, 2016 @ 8:27 pm

I’ve seen that over the years. I’ve seen young women who are admittedly easy on the eyes, but were unable to transfer a phone call or, no kidding, unable to use an alphabetical employee directory. One didn’t even know left from right, and needed a sign on her desk in order to identify direction.

But then I knew another one, pretty blonde, going to college kind of late (30s), but pretty sharp and a fast thinker. She had awesomely funny comebacks to guys hitting on her. She ended up a good friend of mine.
Daniel Freeman
March 20th, 2016 @ 8:46 pm

Women like easy work. Wages decline in professions they enter because the reason why they entered was the declining difficulty.

ETA: Men like easy work too, but women don’t like poor men, and men don’t have wombs.
Dana
March 21st, 2016 @ 5:06 am

Ahhh, but I registered the trademark! Must suck to be you!
Dana
March 21st, 2016 @ 5:10 am

So, I wonder: do they now have competitions to see which is the best looking computer to answer the telephone?
Jason Lee
March 21st, 2016 @ 6:18 am

Yes, probably. But their tokophobic attitudes have permeated Western society to our detriment.
JosephBleau
March 21st, 2016 @ 12:25 pm

Men make more because women demand it of them, therefore men make choices regarding career and lifestyle geared toward meeting that demand. Women can make less and still be appealing to men, so why would they continually eat the shit sandwich at work in an effort to get ahead?
JosephBleau
March 21st, 2016 @ 12:27 pm

“I work as a stationary engineer”
Sounds like a career with very little mobility. 😉
Gospace
March 21st, 2016 @ 1:20 pm

Actually, that’s true because the term comes from olden days, and means just that. In the days of steam engines, marine engineers operated steam plants at sea, locomotive engineers operated steam plants on locomotives, and stationary engineers operated plants that didn’t go anywhere. If you could do one, you could do the other.
Art Deco
March 21st, 2016 @ 3:49 pm

I don’t think ‘declining difficulty’ has been characteristic of school teaching in the last 60 years.

I don’t think that women like ‘easy’ work. Rather, women have an aversion to work in which your hands get literally dirty unless it involves activities you ordinarily do in domestic life, so you see women in food service, in housekeeping, as nurse’s aides, and in horticulture, but not in the building trades. I suspect this is due to a disgust reaction that goes all the way to the core and you’re just never going to get a large number of women who want to work as masons or car mechanics.

In salaried occupations, I think you do find something of an aversion to work which has robust operational measures of competence (e.g. commission sales) or which requires thinking on your feet in disorderly situations. Steve Sailer had some interesting observations on what happened to IT when personal computers began replacing mainframes.
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March 22nd, 2016 @ 7:47 am

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FMJRA 2.0: The Shattering Triumph Of Kazika The Mad Jap : The Other McCain
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