The U.S. gender wage gap is a myth.

No, it’s not.

Actually, it is. 

Men might earn more than women, but they do not get paid more. 

The Census Bureau wage statistics calculated the average income of men and women in the United States. There were no limitations on the incomes that were involved in the calculations, they literally lumped together all the incomes they had on record and calculated the average.

Now this is how the average is calculated… all of the salaries are added together. Then the sum of those amounts are divided by how many salaries were added together. “Oh, but the sum of the female salaries were obviously lower than the male salaries!”

Yup, but that’s not because women are paid less. That’s because statistically, men are more likely to pick higher paying jobs than women.

The most lucrative jobs are petroleum engineering (87% male), pharmacy pharmaceutical sciences and administration (48% male), mathematics and computer science (67% male), aerospace engineering (88% male), chemical engineering (72% male), electrical engineering (89% male), naval architecture and marine engineering (97% male), mechanical engineering (90% male), metallurgical engineering (83% male), and mining and mineral engineering (90% male). These are all jobs that men dominate.

Inversely, the least lucrative jobs are counseling psychology (74% female), early childhood education (97% female), theology and religious vocations (34% female), human services and community organization (81% female), human services and community organization (81% female), social work (88% female), drama and theater arts (60% female), studio arts (66% female), communication disorders sciences and services (94% female), visual and performing arts (77% female), and health and medical preparatory programs (55% female).

And no, it’s not because women aren’t “allowed” to get the higher paying jobs. It’s because men are more inclined to choose the high paying jobs. Women’s personalities make them more “predisposed” to pick jobs that happen to pay less than others that men are more “predisposed” to pursue. Doesn’t mean that women don’t exist in the remunerative fields… just means that they are less common because less women are trying to go into these fields. It has nothing to do with sexism, but has everything to do with how male and female personalities differ.

Also, here’s an interesting little factoid. Some women are less likely to even try to join a workplace that is in a male dominated field. Be it they are discouraged or intimidated, the fact of the matter is that women won’t jump at the opportunity to enter these fields.

Not only that, but men are more likely to choose dangerous jobs, such as aircraft pilots, truck drivers, garbage collectors, physical labor jobs like roofers and construction laborers, iron/steel workers, farmers, fishers, loggers, ranchers, and industrial machinery installation/repair.

These are all “male dominated fields.” The amount of workplace fatalities is over nine times higher for men than it is for women (5.5 per 100,000 men, 0.6 per 100,000 women). 4,021 men and 319 women died in workplace injuries in 2009. Men do this for a number of reasons, such as the fact that they are natural risk takers.

Women are statistically more interested in starting a family, so they leave their careers to focus on the family. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just something that women are more “biologically” inclined to do.

Men also are more likely to work longer hours. Men, on average, work 40+ hours per week while women, on average, work 35-39 hours per week. Not only does this make men more likely to be promoted (a company owner will be more inclined to choose an employee who jumps at the opportunity to work overtime for a promotion or pay raise).

So what have we learned so far?

So with all of this information, let’s think about the wage gap. The CB took all the salaries and added ‘em together, but didn’t include the information that impacted WHY men make more money than women, which there is overwhelming proof to explain.  

So for example, let’s say we have these salaries:

Male workers: $80,000, $83,000, $87,000, $90,000, $92,000, $95,000, $100,000, $110,000, $118,000, $120,340 Female workers: $73,000, $74,600, $77,000, $80,300, $84,000, $88,000, $93,000, $98,300, $105,120, $115,500

Total for male workers: $975,340 Total for female workers: $888,820

Average for male workers: $97,534 Average for female workers: $88,882

So there you go, the average salary for the women is less than the men. In my little cooked up example, the difference is about 91 cents per dollar. Which makes sense, considering the actual gap collected by the Census Bureau says that the gap is probably more along the lines of 81% - 87%, even 94% in some demographics.

Sources:

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The wage gap is a myth.  Deal with it

misandry-mermaid

@Hillary Clinton

I love this

Me, too. So true.