VICTOR JOECKS: ‘Gender pay gap’ is destructive illusion

The gender pay gap is the result of misleading statistics and innate differences between men and women.

Tuesday was Equal Pay Day. It’s supposed to represent how long it takes women to earn what men make in a one year. Its proponents claim women earn only 84 cents for every dollar men make. The implication is that sexism remains deeply embedded throughout America.

“The gender wage gap is a national disgrace,” Jamila Taylor, Institute for Women’s Policy Research president and CEO, said. “Even in professions typically dominated by women, men earn more for doing the same job.”

That charge falls apart under even a cursory analysis.

Start with this. If you calculate out the “equal pay” date based on 84 cents, it would have occurred last weekend.

“The date chosen does not represent the exact date on which these women ‘catch up’ to men, but rather is a symbolic date close to the ‘catch up’ date or to coincide with other advocacy events,” the National Committee on Pay Equity admits on its site.

Don’t trust people who twist the facts to fit their narrative.

It’s illegal to pay men more than women based on their sex. That’s not new. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 has been on the books for decades. Beyond that, it’s comical for the left to simultaneously believe that companies are inappropriately “greedy” and willingly pay men a substantial wage premium. Logically, you have to pick one or the other.

The statistic is fundamentally dishonest. It intentionally creates the impression that it’s comparing men and women who are equal in all respects except their sex. But it’s not doing that. It compares the aggregate median earnings of men and women working full-time.

There’s no adjustment for other factors that affect pay. On average, men work more hours than women. As they approach their midcareer points, men have more years of experience. Women are more likely to be teachers and nurses, while men are more likely to be software developers and engineers. Compared with women, more than 11 times as many men died on the job in 2022.

Once you adjust for other factors, the mythical gender pay gap all-but disappears. In some major cities, women under 30 earn more than their male counterparts.

Once you understand this, the gender pay gap reveals something different. In the aggregate, men and women are paid differently because they make different choices. They make different choices because men and women are different.

Traditionally, those differences weren’t just acknowledged, but celebrated. Society cheered when a man and woman came together to make things neither could create on their own — a marriage and family. Overall, those institutions benefit both those involved and society as a whole.

Today, popular culture’s destructive message is that men and women are the same in all respects. Any variation in outcomes results from nefarious societal pressure, not inherent differences between the sexes.

Promoting that falsehood may help shrink the gender pay gap, but it leads to something much worse — increased human misery, loneliness and societal decline.

Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.