Straight talking on the gender pay gap

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Shannow

Shannow

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It's paraded around as the epitome of unfairness downunder, and I'm sure over there as well that women in the workforce don't receive the same compensation as blokes.

I haven't ever worked in a workplace where there was a different pay rate for the different sexes, but today's morning news, the elephant in the room was actually shared...it will be met with outrage, but that's what the truth does.

A researcher has revealed that if more men chose nursing, and more women chose engineering, the gap would be squeezed...e.g. 80% of nurses are female, 97% of mining engineers are male, and there's about 100% different in average pay between the two...

hmmm....
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
A researcher has revealed that if more men chose nursing, and more women chose engineering, the gap would be squeezed...e.g. 80% of nurses are female, 97% of mining engineers are male, and there's about 100% different in average pay between the two...

hmmm....


Meaning that women are more likely to work in lower-pay jobs than men? I don't want to get too political, but that is a HUGE factor in this [perceived] inequality if you ask me.
 
The female engineers I worked with got the same pay as we men.

My wife, a former nurse, said male nurses made a few percent more than female nurses because the EXPECTED level of performance for male nurses was higher.
 
There's also a significant difference in wages paid men over those paid women in similar lines of work.
If you norm for similar qualifications, duties and repsonsibilities, the wage gap remains.
It isn't explicable by choice of career.
Incidentally, in this country, a senior RN isn't too far behind a typical engineer in earnings, caertainly not by a factor of two.
 
Quote:

My wife, a former nurse, said male nurses made a few percent more than female nurses because the EXPECTED level of performance for male nurses was higher.


Seriously, isn't that the problem in a nutshell?
 
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There actually is no gap. Even in the same field men work more hours, take the lousy shifts and poor locations. If you look at same job, location, experience etc the gap disappears. This is one of the few myths that drives me crazy.

Life expectancy is the other (it goes up because infant mortality is going down; me are actually living a *tiny* bit longer than in the past).
 
Men still run the show which adds a few percentage points to an average (not median) pay.

But women are really good at getting half-cushy $15/hr office jobs with few skills besides looking cute.
 
There is no wage gap. In every job I ever had the women got the same pay for the same effort. I also saw women refusing to do the same effort, complaining that it was too dangerous or "dehumanizing" as one put it who quit rather than work mandatory overtime.

Women in general, (there are a few exceptions) work in less dangerous jobs, refuse uncomfortable, outdoor jobs, and fewer by far work in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Compared to men, women just in general do not work such long hours either.

There are exceptions, but few in terms of raw numbers.
 
It could be any difference. The goal is to drive wedges in society. Gender, ethnic origin, age, religion, etc. Any differences(false or otherwise) are exploited by disaffected in all societies and eras. There is a huge government and legal industry living on legal extortion using these issues.
 
I have worked primarily in commission based environments, and an equally skilled female salesperson will usually outsell her male counterparts based on perceived trustworthiness, even if her knowledge base is not a strong regarding the products or services being sold.
Men are more likely to prioritize work over family, and therefore will spend more time at the office, thusly appearing more devoted and valuable to the company. They are more likely to gain favor with management, more likely to get promoted, and more likely to have a career that takes priority over their spouse's, handcuffing their spouse's ability to advance in her career.
 
Originally Posted By: Cristobal
There is no wage gap. In every job I ever had the women got the same pay for the same effort. I also saw women refusing to do the same effort, complaining that it was too dangerous or "dehumanizing" as one put it who quit rather than work mandatory overtime.

Women in general, (there are a few exceptions) work in less dangerous jobs, refuse uncomfortable, outdoor jobs, and fewer by far work in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Compared to men, women just in general do not work such long hours either.

There are exceptions, but few in terms of raw numbers.


Unfortunately this to me is the truth. Same pay for the same work, but the work level is often not consistent. The high performers do the same or better.

But the other part of it then fills in when the women take off for babies. Depending upon how long, they miss out on a raise or seniority increase. I know my wife did this past year taking off to be with our baby - of course for the same number of years out, same job, same level of performance she is going to be paid less then... And she should, she is a year less sneior at that point.

And it is absolutely criminal for the woman (or man) to not take off a substantial amount of time, and instead shuttle newborn to daycare sucking on bottles after like 6 weeks or a couple months as opposed to a year or more. Unfortunately our culture pushes this, and IMO we are seeing the fruits of that in the population.
 
Most women physically could not do my job. It involves a lot of heavy lifting and moving of oil drums by hand. If they could keep up with my pace of delivering, then I would fully expect them to get paid just as much as me.
 
It would be interesting to get the perspective of some women on this topic, but I suspect that won't happen on this site...
 
Originally Posted By: DoiInthanon
It could be any difference. The goal is to drive wedges in society. Gender, ethnic origin, age, religion, etc. Any differences(false or otherwise) are exploited by disaffected in all societies and eras. There is a huge government and legal industry living on legal extortion using these issues.


Unfortunately my cousin bout into the industry. Got her degree in "womens studies" she was in the first graduating class! At the local pubic university. Months after graduation she was frustrated that no one had thrown an incredible job offer her way. Seems the only thing you can do with a womens studies degree...is teach womens studies.

My career is as varied as anyones and I have never ever seen a woman work for less than a man for equal job. This should be a non issue, but the talking heads in DC will make it one to get out the woman vote.
 
Where I worked women received exactly the same pay as men doing the same job. I would agree that there are more males engineers than women engineers and more women nurses than males nurses but nurses can receive high pay also-at least an RN can, especially an RN working in special units in the hospitals.

For people doing exactly the same job they should all receive equal pay, male or female. But if somebody points out a gap between what men and women earn there has to be investigation as to why the gap exists. If it is because more men holding down professional positions such as engineers what can you say?
 
JHZR2 and I both have very well paid wives who work as therapists. Males in this field get the same pay as females, and the work is hard.

I honestly haven't seen many folks work any harder than my wife does, frequently seeing 7 patients in a day that also includes 150 miles of driving and all the associated documentation that health care requires. A full 12 to 14 hour day IMO deserves good pay.

A few isolated examples will be paraded in the media for you to get excited about. Refuse the diet they try to feed you...
 
When men leave the workforce to get married, have babies, and take time off to care for them, then they will wind up getting paid similarly.

When women work hard, dangerous jobs, give their familiy life up, never take vacation, they will get paid as much as men.

Case closed. Believe it or don't. That's why there's a pay gap.
 
Where I work men and women get paid the same.

I'd have to see a study or three from reputable sources to further develop an opinion on the subject.
 
Originally Posted By: Barkleymut

Unfortunately my cousin bout into the industry. Got her degree in "womens studies" she was in the first graduating class! At the local pubic university. Months after graduation she was frustrated that no one had thrown an incredible job offer her way. Seems the only thing you can do with a womens studies degree...is teach womens studies.


... and scare off employers who think she'll either sue them for harassment or turn all the other females into lesbians.

It would be interesting to see if leaving this degree off one's resume leads to more call-backs.
 
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