Is the gender pay gap a myth?

I think it does, but I’ve never compared my salary to any man’s so I don’t haven’t any first hand argument to present. I’d just google and have to decide what to believe and what not to believe.

One thing I have had first hand experience that I can point to is being dismissed and disregarded by men because I’m “just a girl.” As long as that old, Male Chauvinist Pig generation is still in force, it’s not going to go away.

I would ask your friend to show a single “debunking”. It has been proven repeatedly. The most egregious examples have been in the entertainment industry, where staff (writers and producers) are regularly paid less if they are women.

It happens at all levels in the workforce, too. Women may get raises at the same rate as men, but they get hired at lower salary levels and never get caught up.

This Pew Research goes into at depth.

The “studies’ that attempt to say it does not exist are promoted by incel websites.

The 70% number is a total myth when given proper context. It’s a completely unfair comparison that simply takes the amount of money women make and what men make. It takes nothing else into consideration and when you do that 70% number almost goes away. What is left is probably less than 5% and generally has been chalked up to the notion that men are more willing to risk negotiating for more. There is probably that much actual discrimination IMO. The “pay gap” that makes the 70% number has to do with the types of jobs men on average take pay more, they’re willing to work more overtime, they stay in the workforce longer. Women often drop out of the workplace early to stay home and raise a family while the father still works. There is a lot to consider with this.
It’s also illegal to discriminate based on gender. In my field women get paid the same if not more because they are more often hired into middle management. There are so many that drop out early for kids that it still appears like a “gap” though. Probably a third of the female engineers I worked with never returned to the workforce after having kids. None of them would have made it past entry-level pay because of this. The ones that stayed and did not go into management make the same. I know this as a fact because our salaries are public.
That’s for “regular” jobs. @zenvelo is correct about the entertainment industry and to a certain extent athletics. The study he linked also states there are other reasons for the pay gap than just discrimination. Regardless there is some still, just not a 30% gap.

@ARE_you_kidding_me Right, that’s why I wanted to make a point about the “mitigating factors”. Saying “women make less” may be true, but it doesn’t take into account their choice of career, maternity leave, how long they remain in a career, etc. Eliminating all that, is there still a gap?

Thanks for the answers.

@Demosthenes I believe there is but it’s pretty small and it may actually start to swing the other way if politics continue down the same path. Another mitigating factor is that for a greater percentage of men they have no choice, they must work. Also, they’ll take higher paying but more dirty and dangerous jobs like construction and on and on. there are so many mitigating factors here that it’s pretty hard for me to take anyone touting that 70% number seriously. 5% or less sure, that’s a number I’d agree on.

It is my understanding that the difference in pay is real, but the idea that the cause is sexism is mostly a myth. Women tend to gravitate to positions that pay less but offer more flexibility, where men tend to choose positions that are less flexible and better compensated. The point is that this is self-selection and not being chosen for them. I’m not sure if that narrative is accurate or not, but it’s the explanation I heard about from the Freakonomics podcast a few years ago.

Its still very much alive in flyover country. Some of us joke that if we only had a penis we’d get a raise, expense card, time off whenever we want, etc.. Its very obviously unequal, even the workload. The good ole boy club is alive and well here.

@KNOWITALL What field do you work in? I don’t doubt it in small town, small buisiness. My wife has seen that first hand. Here in the city in a large company…not so much.

@Are You Media.

@KNOWITALL Makes sense, that gap is real in entertainment.

“Women tend to gravitate to positions that pay less but offer more flexibility, where men tend to choose positions that are less flexible and better compensated” I actually have to agree with that.
My sister always aimed for a high powered, high money career, and she got one, at Boeing. Her job required extensive traveling, even when the kids were little. But she’s not the usual, I don’t think.
Her husband got a degree in education so he could support her ambitions.
I was just the opposite. I got a degree in education, so it would keep me on the same schedule as my kids.
One thing led to another, and I never did land a teaching position. At one point I was actually offered a job at Koch industries, in their legal department, and man, I would have loved, LOVED that! But….it meant a 100 mile commute round trip, every day, and who knows how much over time. My kids were not quite old enough to look after themselves, and after they DID get old enough to look after themselves I felt it was important to be available and present. I didn’t have the back up to support that, even though that’s what I really wanted to do.
So…I turned it down.

I truly believe, based on my own observations and personal choices, that women value freedom and flexibility over money. Women are more likely to work part-time or to choose jobs that don’t demand late evenings and weekend hours.

I haven’t had a full-time job since the mid-1980s. I knew and accepted that my hourly equivalent pay would be significantly lower than those of my colleagues. Part-time workers aren’t as vested in the employer and generally can’t be expected to make the extra effort.

If a woman has the freedom of her income being a second income and it’s just a perk, and she isn’t supporting the family by herself, then she has the luxury of being super picky. I think if men were just working for the fun of it, they’d probably do the same thing too.

No not a myth.
Worked for Municipal Government,Provincial Government and Federal Governments and females WERE paid less then males in the same capacity.
Many years later I received a one time payout of $5000 (CDN $) after this dependency was brought to light and many ex employees demanded a correction .
As a result in the present all female employees get equal pay as males do.

I suspect there is still some inequality out there, but as @Are_you stated, it isn’t as drastic as is often touted. I know that every job I have had, women made the same as men. I have seen women that worked the same job get advanced in normal rates. I have also seen women that took excessive time off for maternity or family leave or had demanded specific schedules to accommodate family needs that didn’t get advanced as quickly. I’m somewhat on the fence about that. On one hand, I’m glad the jobs I have had were accommodating and gave the flexibility for the women. But then the question is: should that be held against them? On the other hand, you have equally qualified men that work the extra hours the women aren’t there, are there supporting the company the whole time. Is it right for them to be treated the same as someone that isn’t there all the time?
I was a single parent for many years and I was not afforded the accommodations at that time. In fact, my supervisor wanted to turn my personal life into an action plan he could track to make sure I wasn’t screwing the company. I told him exactly what he could do with that idea. But that was back in the mid 90’s. Things have changed significantly since then so the gender pay gap has probably changed as well.

I guess I don’t understand how you all could know what everyone’s salaries were, to compare them, unless you asked them and they told you.

@Dutchess_III My employers salaries are public information. Anyone can lookup my salary or any of my coworkers from the CEO to the janitor.

I bet that leaves a lot of disgruntled coworkers in its wake.

@Dutchess_III Not really, hardly anyone bothers or even realizes this. I used the info to negotiate a small raise once though.

@Dutchess_III we talked a lot. I ran into an interesting situation early in my career. I was hired in at a set rate of pay. Over the years, I got pay raises based on merit, not cost of living. As a result, it was about 6 years before I was making more than they were hiring people in at. I had to train the new people that were making the same pay I was.

I work in government and we all know what each other’s salaries are because every title has a salary range attached to it. Also, our salaries are google-able. It’s public information what any government worker makes, and the government workers’ salaries are public information too. That’s why we know what the President makes, the politicians make, and you can google your local police officer or fireman or government worker or judge or teacher or anything else that’s town, state or federal.