Every now and people who appear rational find themselves repeating nonsense, usually in the Nashua Telegraph which is one of New Hampshire leading sources for editorial nonsense. This time around it’s a guest commentary from Robert Collinsworth, who has an internet footprint large enough to identify him as an otherwise sensible guy. So why has he taken to the editorial pages to sell the left wing meme that there is a gender/wage gap?
I only bring it up because his reasoning is right out of the liberal weenie play book. Women only make 0.78/$1.00 compared to men. He then asks why Republicans in the US senate are blocking the liberal legislation being sold as a fix, as if we can and should trust this unexplored talking point.
Rather than try explore any one persons motivations or sanity, we should probably just look deeper into the issue, and a Bill that looks like it creates more problems than it solves. (Links and resources on the jump.)
Like most liberal shibboleths Paycheck Fairness is based on incomplete analysis to pander to a bloc of voters the democrats have identified as worthy of their endless grievance mongering. To repeat their talking points is, as far as I can tell, not worthy of Mr. Collinsworth or anyone else.
This is not an issue that can be evaluated strictly on the price paid for an hour of labor averaged across the full spectrum of work and wages. To do so ignores every other factor in life, the free market, and the real danger that the legislative solution being proposed creates.
Rule number one: Liberal progressives always ignore any or all of the reasons for wage differences, not just between genders, but even within genders, because it damages their argument.
Men who choose to work jobs that demand longer hours than women, and in other jobs choose work before a social life will earn higher wages regardless of gender.
Many women choose part time work over full time work, where men tend to work full-time more often.
Women are more likley to leave jobs to raise families or pursue things other than professional careers.
Men predominate in dangerous, unpleasant and high risk professions that women simply have no interest in, and as a result make significantly more for shouldering that risk.
There are plenty of other examples, all which would warrant higher pay for women over other women, just as they do men over other men, were they predominate in these occupations. But because there is an axe to grind, longer hours or hazard pay, or any other factors not related to genitalia that result in greater average incomes for men overall are simply averaged in to the whole to arrive at a "gap." And rather than discuss inconvenient facts the left prefers to hide the inconvenient variables so they can offer up an income Hockey-stick graph in hopes we’ll just embrace whatever crappy bill the democrats are trying to sell as the solution.
I’m not down with that struggle. We should be just a suspicious of this as we are of any misguided, overreaching, nanny-state do-goodery because federal, left-leaning regulations almost always hurt the people they are meant to help. Assuming you still believe they were meant to help.
Increasing the minimum wage reduces employment opportunities for the people it is most meant to help. Welfare, creates an underclass rather than providing a safety net that keeps them going while they try to get back on their feet. And forcing employers to jump through hoops to prove that no gender discrimination exists in their wage scales will only reduce opportunities for women by lowering the number of employment opportunities overall.
The Paycheck fairness act is nothing more than an invitation to federal meddling and litigation. HR1338 removes discretion from the hands of employers and hands it to regulators. And not only will it not create fair paychecks, it will create fewer paychecks as businesses divert money to deal with new regulations and in defense of their activities, instead f using it to grow and hire.
All it does is grow the government and enrich trial lawyers.
It is unfortunate that otherwise sensible people have been taken in by this scam. But there is a solution. Read something besides the Nashua Telegraph for starters. And then stop using the left wing narrative to bash Republicans for seeing this garbage legislation for what it is–overreaching left wing crap.
Links and Resources
June O’Neill, Baruch College, City University of New York
