The last time Americans were intellectually lazy (and mind-numbed enough through the same style of constant carping), to entertain the spurious complaint that women in the workforce get paid less than men, was back in the 1970s days of Gloria Steinem and her women's libber ilk - which included liberal feminists like Hillary Clinton. Of course the whole notion was as easily disposed of back then as it is today. Or has our society finally been dumbed down enough to actually entertain this preposterous argument? Back to the unisex bathroom discussions too?
All a person with a capacity for critical thought has to recognize is that on average, women spend less time in the workforce than men, which handily explains any disparity. Many women leave the workforce to nurture their children through their most formative years, many of whom never return to the workforce. Indeed as their lives pass them by, more and more professional women in the workplace are recognizing that they have sacrificed the joy that having and rearing children can bring, while some even sacrificed finding a partner to enjoy life with, on the alter of their career.
The only way the argument of equal pay can hold up is by refusing to recognize the number of years a person is in the workforce, which is an important measure of an employee's value. This would seem just another ploy of our increasingly socialist/Marxist government seeking ever more fascist control over the private sector. Can you imagine how ridiculous things would become with the Federal Government determining the value of private company's individual employees? Equal pay for equal work also excludes considering the greater productivity one person may have over another - but no surprise coming from a party that favors Marxist ideas. Indeed things have gotten to the point where Bernie Sanders didn't even think it would be unwise to declare himself to be a socialist.
Also, on average, men tend to choose higher paying vocations than women do.
http://www.payscale.com/gender-lifetime-earnings-gapTragically, one thing those feminists did prevail in, is hiring preferences for women. Even though there are more women than men in the U.S., they are given hiring preferences (effectively quotas) in the workforce, as if they were a minority. Female owned businesses are even given preference as bidders for government contracts and such, over other firms, as "minority owned businesses".
What hiring preferences for women of course results in, is that every time a woman receives a hiring preference over an equally qualified man, one more traditional breadwinner is relegated to suffering a more difficult time of being able to provide for his family. Particularly in these times when the September
Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate hit a fresh new
37 year low. (able bodied non-military men and women over 16 years of age and physically and mentally capable of work)
It further suggests that women should legally bear equal financial responsibility for providing for their families, bringing an end to such "sexist" notions of men paying child support after a divorce, let alone alimony.
Simply consider the proportion of male to female lumberjacks and oil rig roughnecks, to understand the absurdity of equality in the workforce. Should the government require a 50/50 workforce for timber severing companies? To argue in favor of even the current hiring preferences given to women, which results in the second class status of men in the workforce, also requires a person to believe that on average men are the equals of women in the mothering of children.
If a woman believes she is being discriminated against by an employer, by being paid less than her male counterparts because of her sex - considering all of the factors including the number of years on the job - she is currently at liberty to file a complaint against that employer (perhaps even to be financed by the government). Better yet, however, would be that any time someone doesn't like the way they are treated by an employer, to go find another employer. Getting out of a rut often results in a far better situation for those that do.
