Jul 30, 2017 · 1 min read
but there is plenty of hard evidence that shows wage inequality is real.
Not really, no. At least not to any large extent. What there is, are aggregations of numbers with no attempt to control for variables. The way in which you get to a 77 cents on the dollar number is to combine the average earnings of all full time women with the average earnings of all full time men. Clearly anyone can see that’s ridiculous. Would we accept someone comparing the income of 100 female teachers to 100 male physicians, then attempt to claim unequal pay for equal work? Of course not. Yet that’s exactly how the wage gap is derived. Once the variables begin to be factored out, the gap narrows down to about 5% being unexplained by the data.
