The gender pay gap is not what the left claims, but the liberal media continue peddling the misinformation that women make far less than men.
Proponents of the “misleading” wage gap statistic designated April 4, as Equal Pay Day. Each year they cry discrimination and call attention to “wage discrepancies that exist between men and women in the workforce.” Predictably, liberal media outlets repeat those claims that women get paid 20 percent less for doing the same work as men and refuse to expose the truth behind the statistic.
CNNMoney, NBCNews.com, the Associated Press and other media promoted “Equal Pay Day” 2017 by reporting on it rather than exposing it.
CNNMoney reporter Kathryn Vasel provided “5 things to know about the gender pay gap” on April 4. Number one on her list was: “women generally earn around 80 cents for every dollar men earn.” Her only admission that the figure could mislead was that the “gap narrows when factors like education level, type of work, experience and job tenure” are factored in.
Explaining that further would have discredited the entire idea and purpose of Equal Pay Day since it isn’t discriminatory to pay people differently for different work, experience or education.
NBC News social media Intern Shira Tarlo wrote, “What is Equal Pay Day? Here’s Everything You Need to Know.” She cited multiple estimates for the “wage gap,” from 77 percent to 83 percent. She also broke things down by race and ethnicity and argued “it's clear that women's fight for pay equity and work opportunities is far from over” — notably bashing President Donald Trump for reversing a 2014 order from the Obama administration.
But since Tarlo didn’t admit the way those statistics are deceptive, she definitely didn’t tell readers “everything” they needed to know.
The Associated Press article cited an 80 percent statistic and highlighted the #20percentCounts movement started by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. This movement encouraged companies to offer 20 percent discounts to both men and women April 4, in honor of Equal Pay Day.
Network of Enlightened Women president Karin Agness exposed the faulty stats in a Forbes on Equal Pay Day. She wrote that women earn roughly 80 percent of what men earn, when you simply compare “median earnings of women and men in full-time wage and salary jobs.”
But that comparison makes no sense, since it does not consider “significant differences in labor choices.”
CEO of Causeway Capital Management investment firm Sarah Ketterer also provided essential context in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. She cited Bureau of Labor Statistics figures which demonstrated that men are “significantly more likely” to work longer hours. Ketterer also found that when comparing men and women that work 40 hours or more, “women then earn on average 90 cents for every dollar earned by men.”
She also referenced a study from Georgetown University economist Anthony Carnevale who found “women flock to college majors that lead to lower-paying careers.”
“Of the 10 lowest-paying majors—such as ‘drama and theater arts’ and ‘counseling psychology’—only one, ‘theology and religious vocations,’ is majority male,” Ketterer added. On the other hand, the opposite is true of the higher paying fields. All but one, are majority male.
Even Slate published an article by Hanna Rosin, co-host of NPR’s Invisibilia, who called the 77 cents on a dollar claim a “lie” and “not true.”
