This last week the president signed into law an Executive Order "prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against employees who choose to discuss their compensation." Why? Because the president believes that "full-time working women still earn 77 cents to every dollar earned by men." And if they tell us it's so, it's so, right?
Odd thing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (yes, another government agency) says that unmarried women make 96 cents to every dollar a man doing the same job makes, essentially no difference at all. A study done by CONSAD for the Bureau of Labor Statistics compared a variety of factors including experience, insurance, fringe benefits, overtime, industries, motherhood, and a host of contributing factors and concluded that there was, making the truest comparison, an hourly wage gap of 5 cents.
But that's not the most interesting item. Using the standard comparison (annual income) which results in the standard claim (77 cents), as it turns out the difference on a weekly income is more like 81 cents to the dollar and an hourly income comparison is closer to 86 cents to the dollar. In other words, there appears to be a wage gap ... but no one really knows how much.
But that's not the most interesting item. Apparently, using whatever standards they may use, the White House staff suffers from an 88-cents-to-every-dollar wage gap for women. Their defense? "It is better than the national average." Not, "Oh, my, we have to fix that right away!" No, it's "You have to fix your problem, but we're 'better than the national average', so we're okay."
If someone comes into your office holding a package and says, "Look! I've got a ticking bomb going to explode at any second!" and does not run, don't believe him. If someone comes to your town and warns, "If we don't stop flying private jets and driving SUVs, we're going to destroy the world" and he got there by private jet and then an SUV, don't believe him. If someone shouts, "You've got to fix your women's wage gap" and won't fix their own, there's a word for it. It's called "hypocrisy". Look it up.
7 comments:
If nothing else, it demonstrates that their true concern is not for women and whatever gap might exist, but to gin up outrage regarding the perception of a gap in order to draw votes their way. So to hypocrisy one must add "deceit".
"If someone comes into your office holding a package and says, "Look! I've got a ticking bomb going to explode at any second!" and does not run, don't believe him."
I would insert somewhere "and he is not muslim and/or yelling 'Allah Akbar!'"
Firstly, the whole idea of a wage gap is absurd. No one really ever proves anything, but their agenda promotes lots of speculation.
Even stupider, is Obama's proclamation, as if addressed something that was even happening!
But these sorts of things distract the sheep from the real problems with the administration, and that's why they are important.
Marshall Art, I would think that "deceit" is integral to "hypocrisy".
Okay, true, Danny, but that's not tolerant of you to say it, you know.
True, Glenn, true. I do expect that women make less than men -- that there really is a "wage gap" somewhere in there -- but explaining 1) what it is, 2) why it is, and 3) if it is actually an issue seems to be an impossibility.
I wonder what a wage gap study between government workers and non-government workers would reveal; especially if all the non-government workers who have been laid off because of excessive government-worker-bureaucrat-created regulation were taken into account.
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