Gender Pay Gap 2022

 

 

This year, Equal Pay Day arrived for women on March 15. According to gender rights advocates, the average woman must add to her 2021 income two and a half months of work in 2022 to make as much as the average white man made in 2021. In other words, a woman only makes 83% of what a man makes in income. Black and Latina women are even more disadvantaged compared to white men. Oddly, the wages of black and Hispanic men are usually excluded from the calculations for black and Hispanic women. 

 

Usually, Equal Pay Day occurs in early April and in the past news sources have headlined the terrible injustice of the gender pay gap. But this year’s date, even though it was the earliest on record and should have been good news for equal rights advocates, was hardly reported despite the fact that it was marked by a Presidential Proclamation dutifully signed by President Joe Biden.  The news sources I follow never mentioned it. Why? Was it the fact that good news is no news? It seems more likely that in the past gender pay disparity was useful as a tool by left wing advocacy groups to smear their opponents. Why broadcast pay inequity now when they have a friendly Democratic administration in Washington. Whatever the reason, it was always a bogus story. Here’s why.

 

Gender gap ratios do not actually compare salaries of full-time employees working the same job. Such reports just use averages based on the salaries of men and women across companies, industries, and job titles. How this information is gathered is a mystery to me. I suspect Census data or IRS compilations are used but these figures often show great variation. 

 

Interestingly, it is difficult for those calling for new laws to deal with wage discrimination to find actual instances of wage discrimination. After all, both Federal and Connecticut law forbids wage discrimination. A few years ago, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities reported, “the number of women who complain about not getting as much as their male counterparts is small.” 

 

All government employees, for example, work on gender-neutral pay scales. Teachers, police officers, firefighters, mail carriers, all get the same pay for the same work. Even high-income occupations are no longer the exclusive male bastions of the past. The medical and financial professions have become increasingly open to women and will become more so since the majority of college graduates today are women. No modern corporation would dare to have differing wage scales for men and women. Nevertheless, most engineering students are still men and over 90% of art history students are women, a factor that obviously contributes to disparity in income.

 

I would venture to guess that the disparity in gender income is largely based on decisions that people choose to make. A few years ago, a statistical survey came to the comical conclusion that it was better for a woman to live in Bridgeport, CT where the gender gap was narrow, than in Darien or New Canaan where it was the widest despite the fact that the average income of women in those towns is twice the income of women living in Bridgeport. Obviously, talented well-educated women choose to live in towns like New Canaan and Darien because of the beautiful homes, excellent school systems, and crime free streets. 

 

One of the statistics noted that in both New Canaan and Darien the number of married women in the work force is only about 40% compared to a national average of about 60%. While one of the “experts” quoted in the article referred to the “nostalgic idea of what the family is supposed to look like,” and called it a “romantic notion,” it still seems to be working very well in New Canaan and Darien. Compare that romantic notion with the one espoused years ago by Murphy Brown and see the devastation that single motherhood has brought to the lives of so many single mothers and their children in cities like Bridgeport.

 

It is a sad fact that the low income of single, unwed mothers does statistically drag down average median income for women. Poverty is practically an inevitable result when women have children before they have jobs or marry. The obvious success of Asian immigrants in this country is basically due to what one researcher called a traditional “success sequence” of education, work, marriage, and children in that order. In China, where she grew up, illegitimacy was unthinkable. Even in modern China, the out of wedlock birth rate is only 4%. 

 

The same figures used by gender rights advocates show that women of Asian descent make substantially more that black or Hispanic women. Politicians in New York City are trying to change the admission standards for the City’s elite public high schools. Candidates for admission must take a competitive entrance exam to get into one of these schools. Currently, students of Asian immigrants gain 50% of the places even though Asian-Americans make up only 16% of the city’s population. I suspect that Asian women do as well if not better than white men on these tests.

 

Politicians and commentators who think that legal measures like minimum wage laws and paid family leave will close the gender gap are sadly mistaken. Using their own figures, it appears as if the gender-equity gap has disappeared in cities like Bridgeport. What has been the result? Has Bridgeport become utopia? It used to be said that if you were not part of the solution, you were part of the problem. But if you don’t understand the problem, you can’t be part of the solution. 

 

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Basketball Inequality

      

Napheesa Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson

Last week Katie Lou Samuelson, and Napheesa Collier, two senior stars on the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team were picked #4 and #6 in the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) 2019 draft. It is extraordinary to see two women from the same team go so high in the draft.

Although they lost in the semi-final of the NCAA tournament to Notre Dame, the two UCONN stars had stellar careers during their four years. In those years the UCONN women lost only five games, but unfortunately three came in NCAA tournaments. 

In 2019 they will probably earn the WNBA minimum rookie salary of about $52000. That figure is considerably less than the estimated $60000 to $70000 annual value of their athletic scholarship at UCONN, a benefit that is also tax free to athletes. It’s not as if there will be a pot of gold at the end of the WNBA rainbow. The top salary in the league is about $120000 and many of the leagues stars choose to profit from their ability by playing overseas during the off-season. Salaries for women players can be fifteen times higher in other countries.

Even if Samuelson and Collier go on like other UCONN women to have successful careers in the WNBA, they will never make in their entire career what an NBA player like LeBron James or Kevin Durant makes in a game or two. NBA stars make in excess of $30 Million per year. Even Duke freshman Zion Wilkinson, the likely #1 pick in this year’s NBA draft, will probably sign a pro contract that exceeds the entire WNBA payroll.

Equal pay advocates usually complain about the apparent income inequality between men and women. They argue that the average woman makes only 80% of what the average white male makes. They like to focus their attention on corporate America which they regard as the bastion of white male supremacy. However, they rarely complain about the enormous income gap in the worlds of entertainment and athletics. Do they overlook the huge contracts of black athletes because they do not fit the white male story? 

The disparities in income between professional male and female basketball players is certainly not caused by discrimination. The difference seems entirely market driven. Although the extraordinary success of the UCONN women’s basketball program under legendary coach Geno Auriemma has led to packed houses at their home games, the interest in women’s professional basketball in this country is minimal. 

As a result, the pro women play only a short 32 game schedule during what is usually the basketball off-season. As noted above, many of the WNBA stars go abroad to earn the big bucks. UCONN all-time great and WNBA MVP Brianna Stewart played this year for a Russian team.

The NBA and WNBA are two distinct business models. The packed houses and TV ratings for the men’s game have allowed the best players to command huge contracts and move freely from one team to another. On the other hand, the WNBA, despite the quality of play and the ability of its athletes, must struggle for revenue. To keep the WNBA viable the teams must use a pay scale where there is little difference between the salaries of the best players and the benchwarmers. Otherwise, the league would have folded years ago and there would be no option for players like Katie Lou Samuelson and Napheesa Collier to continue to play the game they love at home. 

In that case, they would be no different than the thousands of athletes who play in American colleges and universities today for love of the sport. My granddaughter rows crew at UCONN. She had no scholarship but just tried out and made the cut. She loves it, is in the best shape of her life, and has bonded with her crew mates. At the same time, she has kept up her grades and became a scholar-athlete award winner this year. Congratulations N.B.

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Gender Gap 2018

Equal pay day arrived for women this week. According to gender rights advocates, a woman must add to her 2017 income almost three and a half months of work in 2018 to make as much as a white man made in 2017. In other words, a woman in Connecticut only makes 79% of what a white man makes in income. Black and Latina women are even more disadvantaged. Black women make only 58%, and Latina women come in last at 47%. For some inexplicable reason black men don’t seem to be counted.

These familiar statistics were recently re-iterated in an opinion article that appeared in the Connecticut Mirror written by Ashika Brinkley, a board member of the Connecticut Women’s Educational and Legal Fund (CWEALF). Ms. Brinkley claimed that her statistics came from the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) and provided a link to the report. I checked it out and found this disclaimer:

Source Note: What a woman makes for every dollar a man makes is the ratio of women’s and men’s annual median earnings for full time, year round workers. The “wage gap” is the additional money a woman would have to make for every dollar made by a man in order to have equal annual earnings. Overall figures calculated by NWLC are based on 2016 American Community Survey Data.

The term “annual median income” is very significant. It means that half the people in the group made more than that figure and that half made less. Statistically, median income only represents an average and not anyone’s actual earnings. Annual median income can therefore be skewed by high earners on one end, and low earners on the other.

Moreover, gender gap ratios do not actually compare salaries of full time employees working the same job. Such reports just use averages based on the salaries of men and women across companies, industries and job titles. How this information is gathered is a mystery to me? I suspect Census data or IRS compilations are used but these figures often show great variation.

Interestingly, Ms. Brinkley’s opinion piece did not list even one incident of wage discrimination in Connecticut even though she is calling for legislative action. A few years ago a spokesperson for the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities reported, “the number of women who complain about not getting as much as their male counterparts is small.”

I would venture to guess that there is little wage discrimination in Connecticut and that the disparities in income are largely based on choices that people choose to make. All government employees, for example, work on gender-neutral pay scales. Teachers, police officers, firefighters, mail carriers, all get the same pay for the same work. Even high income occupations are no longer the exclusive male bastions of the past. The medical and financial professions have become increasingly open to women and will become more so since the majority of college graduates today are women. No modern corporation would dare to have differing wage scales for men and women. Of course, most engineering students are still men and over 90% of art history students are women.

If there is no wage discrimination, why is there an income gap between women and white men, and why is the gap for Black and Latina women even greater? As mentioned above average median income figures can be skewed by very high earners on one end, and very low earners on the other. I was surprised to discover a while ago that the majority of women in well-to-do Westport are stay at home moms. I imagine that many of them do some kind of part time work where their incomes will be only a fraction of their husbands.

On the other hand, it is a sad fact that the low income of single, unwed mothers will statistically drag down average median income for women. A recent op-ed in the Wall St.  Journal by Wendy Wang cited statistics indicating that poverty is practically an inevitable result when women have children before they have jobs or marry. She claimed that the obvious success of Asian immigrants in this country is basically due to a traditional “success sequence” of education, work, marriage, and children in that order. In China, where she grew up, illegitimacy was unthinkable. Even in modern China, the out of wedlock birth rate is only 4%.

A few years ago a statistical survey came to the comical conclusion that it was better for a woman to live in depressed Bridgeport where the gender gap was narrow, than in posh Darien or New Canaan where it was the widest. It used to be said that if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. But if you don’t understand the problem, you can’t be part of the solution.

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Gender Inequality Day 2016

April 12 this year marked Gender Inequality Day. What does that mean? Apparently, the average woman had to work all of 2015 and right up to April 12 to make as much as the average man made in 2015 alone. To put it another way, it is claimed that the average woman makes only 79% of what the average man earns in any given year.

The 79% figure is apparently based on US Census figures that look at no one in particular, or no occupation in particular, or no industry in particular. One report indicated that the prestigious American Association of University Women is leading the charge for gender equality.                                                                                        

"You can't negotiate your way out of discrimination," says Lisa Maatz, vice president of government relations at the american Association of University Women, a "one-stop shop" for gender equality. and, she notes, April 12 -- or $0.79 -- is the best-case scenario.

The 79% figure has by now become etched in stone and is one of the many mantras that liberal activists must pray daily. It is one of those bogus claims that cannot be disputed by anyone, much less politicians like President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton must kowtow to at every opportunity. In fact, the very actions that the Obama administration is taking to deal with gender inequality prove that the 79% figure has no real basis. The government is actually proposing new regulations that would require companies to fill out massive questionnaires to ensure that they are providing equal pay for equal work. In other words, the government now wants to find hard data to support its bogus 79% claim.

I did a little analysis of some gender inequality claims in 2013 and repeat it here. I looked a little deeply into the census figures for Connecticut's Fairfield County and found that the 79% figure was a meaningless statistic, and that there was no wage discrimination at all. One is led to question the credibility, the honesty, and even the sanity of groups like the American Association of University Women, and the politicians who bow to them. Here is the post from 2013.

A recent front-page article in the Connecticut Post, Bridgeport Connecticut’s local newspaper, highlighted the so-called gender gap in wages between men and women in prosperous Fairfield County. The article featured two columns of statistics indicating the different wages of men and women in various towns in the county. The article was based on a report by the American Association of University Women that used figures from the US Census bureau.

Interestingly, the article did not list even one incident of wage discrimination and even quoted a spokesman for the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities who said, “the number of women who complain about not getting as much as their male counterparts is small.” Moreover, the article did mention that the figures did not actually compare salaries of full time employees working the same job. The report just used averages based on the salaries of men and women “across companies, industries and job titles.” Nevertheless, as a headline proclaimed, “Wage Gap still exists in region.”

The report’s statistics could lead to some laughable conclusions. It would seem that the best place for a woman to work would be Bridgeport, a city where the average woman makes $35932 per year or about 90% of what the average man makes. Compare that to her poor sister in nearby Westport whose average pay of $82052 is only about 50% of what a Westport man earns.

There is an old saying: “Statistics don’t lie, but liars use statistics.” I would venture to guess that there is little wage discrimination in Connecticut and that the disparities in income are largely based on choices that people choose to make. All government employees, for example, work on gender-neutral pay scales. Teachers, police officers, firefighters, mail carriers, all get the same pay for the same work. Even the high priced occupations that the article and accompanying editorial mentioned as going mainly to men are no longer the exclusive male bastions of the past. The medical and financial professions have become increasingly open to women and will become more so since the majority of college graduates today are women. No modern company would dare to have differing wage scales for men and women.

Why did the editorial complain about the disparity in incomes in well-to-do communities like New Canaan and Darien? Obviously, talented well-educated woman choose to live there because of the beautiful homes, excellent school systems, and crime free streets. To hold the city of Bridgeport up as a kind of gender paradigm is ludicrous. It is one of the murder capitols of the state, and its school system is in shambles. Politicians in Bridgeport should be looking at New Canaan and Darien and ask themselves what they can do to emulate them.

One of the statistics noted that in both New Canaan and Darien the number of married women in the work force is only about 40% compared to a national average of about 60%. While one of the “experts” quoted in the article referred to the “nostalgic idea of what the family is supposed to look like,” and called it a “romantic notion,” it still seems to be working very well in New Canaan and Darien. Compare that romantic notion with the one espoused years ago by Murphy Brown and see the devastation that single motherhood has brought to the lives of so many single mothers and their children in cities like Bridgeport.

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Gender Gap?

A recent front-page article in the Connecticut Post, Bridgeport Connecticut’s local newspaper, highlighted the so-called gender gap in wages between men and women in prosperous Fairfield County. The article featured two columns of statistics indicating the different wages of men and women in various towns in the county. The article was based on a report by the American Association of University women that used figures from the US Census bureau.

Interestingly, the article did not list even one incident of wage discrimination and even quoted a spokesman for the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities who said, “the number of women who complain about not getting as much as their male counterparts is small.” Moreover, the article did mention that the figures did not actually compare salaries of full time employees working the same job. The report just used averages based on the salaries of men and women “across companies, industries and job titles.” Nevertheless, as a headline proclaimed, “Wage Gap still exists in region.”

The report’s statistics could lead to some laughable conclusions. It would seem that the best place for a woman to work would be Bridgeport, a city where the average woman makes $35932 per year or about 90% of what the average man makes. Compare that to her poor sister in nearby Westport whose average pay of $82052 is only about 50% of what a Westport man earns.

There is an old saying: “Statistics don’t lie, but liars use statistics.” I would venture to guess that there is little wage discrimination in Connecticut and that the disparities in income are largely based on choices that people choose to make. All government employees, for example, work on gender-neutral pay scales. Teachers, police officers, firefighters, mail carriers, all get the same pay for the same work. Even the high priced occupations that the article and accompanying editorial mentioned as going mainly to men are no longer the exclusive male bastions of the past. The medical and financial professions have become increasingly open to women and will become more so since the majority of college graduates today are women. No modern company would dare to have differing wage scales for men and women.

Why did the editorial complain about the disparity in incomes in well-to-do communities like New Canaan and Darien? Obviously, talented well-educated woman choose to live there because of the beautiful homes, excellent school systems, and crime free streets. To hold the city of Bridgeport up as a kind of gender paradigm is ludicrous. It is one of the murder capitols of the state, and its school system is in shambles. Politicians in Bridgeport should be looking at New Canaan and Darien and ask themselves what they can do to emulate them.

One of the statistics noted that in both New Canaan and Darien the number of married women in the work force is only about 40% compared to a national average of about 60%. While one of the “experts” quoted in the article referred to the “nostalgic idea of what the family is supposed to look like,” and called it a “romantic notion,” it still seems to be working very well in New Canaan and Darien. Compare that romantic notion with the one espoused years ago by Murphy Brown and see the devastation that single motherhood has brought to the lives of so many single mothers and their children in cities like Bridgeport.

Finally, the editorial in the Connecticut Post commenting on the article could be considered a little hypocritical. Five of the six chief employees listed on the paper's masthead are men.

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