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Ladies, the month of March is all about us (OK – and maybe basketball). Last week, we marked International Women’s Day and it’s Women’s History Month.
And Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, the day in the new year when women catch up to men’s earnings the previous year. Women of color must work even further into the year.
According to the Pew Research Center, American women in 2022 “typically earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men.” That’s held fairly constant for the past 20 years. It is progress, however, from 1982 when women earned 65 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.
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It all sounds very maddening and unfair. Until you dig into the numbers and look at why this is the case.
Gender ‘pay gap’ stats are misleading
When you do, it becomes clear that government efforts to “close the gap” could make lives harder for women.
As a woman, I 100% want to be paid equally for equal work and think that should be the standard for all women. The good news is that this is already happening.
But that’s not what Democratic politicians want you to believe. As in previous sessions of Congress, Democrats recently reintroduced the perennial Paycheck Fairness Act, which seeks to bolster the Equal Pay Act of 1963 so women can “hold employers accountable.”
“Women across our country are still being paid less than their male counterparts, still being shortchanged, and it’s time we finally take action to close the wage gap,” stated Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who is a sponsor of the bill. “When we talk about the wage gap, we are ultimately talking about huge, life-changing amounts of pay that women are being cheated out of. Women are paying the price of inaction, and we have to put a stop to sexist pay practices – for good.”
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What these sound bites and news releases don’t tell you is that this gap exists when job comparisons are not equal. When salaries for men and women are controlled for job title, experience, industry and hours worked, the gap nearly disappears.
Equal pay for equal work is already reality
Payscale, which tracks compensation information, found that the controlled gender pay gap is $.99 for every $1 a man makes. That’s not 100%, but it’s pretty darn close.
The pay gap exists for the simple reason that women often make different career choices than men. Teaching, for instance, pays much less than say engineering or medical fields. And women are more likely to take time away from their careers when they have children or choose jobs with flexible hours.
“What we’ve seen historically is the choices that women make, particularly when they are mothers, are just going to naturally lead to lower earnings in part because they’re working fewer hours,” says Rachel Greszler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “They might be giving up wages in turn for remote work or more flexible type of work or maybe certain types of benefits.”
If Democrats got their wish and pushed through legislation like the Paycheck Fairness Act, it could open employers to more lawsuits and force them to treat every employee exactly the same. In other words, more government involvement would make businesses less likely to negotiate a flexible work schedule (and perhaps less pay) with a female employee for fear of getting sued.
Don’t take away flexibility from women
President Joe Biden and Democrats are backing other efforts that could backfire on women, too. The union-friendly PRO (Protecting the Right to Organize) Act was recently reintroduced. One of the things that it would do is limit the number of jobs that could be considered independent contracting. By forcing more gig workers and contractors to become employees, this gives unions more workplaces to organize while taking away freedom from the workers.
More than 20 million women do these independent contractor jobs, which gives them more control over their schedules and offers better work/life balance. The jobs range from Uber drivers and yoga instructors to artists and consultants.
And Biden isn’t waiting on Congress. His administration is actively writing new rules that could force the same outcome by turning many more independent workers into employees.
Government meddling in the economy always comes with risks and unintended consequences, as we’ve seen with forcing higher minimum wages and paid leave policies on the private sector.
“We want to make sure that we’re not going to close more doors for women in an attempt to just bring up their wages,” Greszler says.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques
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