The Myth of Underpaid Women

There has been much talk lately of the Census Bureau date from 2008 that showed that a woman makes only about 77 cents to every male's dollar. So with this statistic in mind, of course bureaucrats in Washington are going to try to make new legislation to ensure equal pay under the law for both men and women (market be damned!). But, let us all not forget what happens when politicians see a statistic without really deciphering the meaning--they misconstrue the data.

Now, it is true that if you were to add up all of the incomes of all of the women in the U.S., then divide by the number of women in the labor force, then did the same for men, you would see that women makes only about 77% as much as men do. But is it because we still live in a sexist country, saturated with discrimination?

I don't think so. I encourage any of my readers to walk onto the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), located in scenic Troy, NY, or any other engineering-focused school and count the number of women. Chances are, it won't be long until you realize that men outnumber the women roughly three to one (at RPI). Men are more likely to go into more lucrative fields such as engineering, computer science, business, or investment, whereas women are more likely to go into fields such as humanities or social work. Although there has been an increase in the number of women graduating with math or science degrees, the women that make up much of the labor force graduated in the 70s, 80s, and 90s--when math/science degrees weren't so popular among the ladies.

Another point that economist Steven Horowitz makes is that many women who graduated from college during the above mentioned decades were less likely to see themselves working a full-time job, and more likely saw themselves working for a period of time before taking time off to raise children, or perhaps taking a job that required only part-time work so that the family could also be looked after, which of course means a lower income.

This isn't to say that absolutely no gender discrimination takes place anywhere in this country anymore, but I believe that it occurs much less than those who like to legislate every little imbalance in our society would like to believe. The income disparity between men and women occurs more through the choices men and women make, including educational choices, the choice to have kids, and the choice to assume responsibility for work in the house. This is not something that can be legislated or mandated, but like I've always said, social changes occur through time or shifting attitudes of the population, not by some government enforced policy. As more and more women start to engage in science and math, perhaps more women will take up fields in engineering, investment, or medicine, which will naturally lower the income disparity. No law will be able to do that, ever.