EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK?

How many of you think that there is a disparity in our economy about the pay to men (higher) as to the pay to women (lower)? Probably most of you, as that's what the media and some politicians have told you to believe. Is it true? The answer is superficially YES, but practically, NO. How can that be when we all know that men generally draw higher pay than women?

Let's look at the facts. The “Paycheck Fairness Act”, that is presently bouncing around Congress, seeks to finally “end” pay differences between men and women, or so they say or want us to believe. The legislation is well-intentioned if there really was an organized conspiracy to keep the pay differential at the bogus figure of 77¢ on the dollar that women are paid as compared to men.

As you can see, men and women don't do the same work (in most cases). Ever since the 1960's and the woman's liberation movement (made up mostly of disgruntled liberal thinking women), this 77¢ figure has been kicking around. With all the “sensitivity” training about how women can (or should) be miners, movers, truckers, carpenters, plumbers, soldiers, construction workers, firemen, and cops, women continue to prefer the office environment. They (women) generally gravitate toward jobs that involve lower stakes, shorter work weeks, a preference for personal relationships over ruthless, cutthroat competition, and, of course, to be near home for the children. Take the medical profession (where more than 50% of the people in medical school are women), 73% of pediatric residents were women, and 64% of dermatology residents were women - but, 60% of residents learning surgery were men. Is the pay for surgeons generally higher than for internists and dermatologists? Of course it is!

Another factor that must be taken into consideration in determining pay scales are experience, education (although the education gap has closed substantially over the years), overtime (which men are more likely to accept), and travel away from home. Taking all that into consideration, the real pay gap is more like 5¢ rather than the 23¢ as the woman's groups claim as the disparity. In fact, a career woman with no children (in most cases) makes salaries on a par with what men make.

The proposed legislation (Paycheck Fairness Act), proposed mainly by the Democrats, if passed, would be a boon to the trial lawyers who would more than be willing to take a business to court claiming pay discrimination. The trial lawyers are one of the biggest contributors to the Democrat Party. Do you think that was taken into consideration when proposing this bill? Is the Pope catholic?

A provision in the PFA would require employers to disclose salary information so that everyone knows what their fellow workers were making. What kind of chaos, in the workplace, would that kind of knowledge be put to use? Lawyers working on commission (a/k/a contingency fees) would be authorized to pursue feminist class-action shakedown lawsuits that would include all women in a firm unless they opted out. Just what we need, more “junk” lawsuits and more paperwork.

In today's economic environment, women tend to gravitate to employment in fields such as, teachers, nurses, and government jobs, which tend to have more stability and job security, than do men, who are affected more by the economic downturn by having jobs in the private sector.

So when you hear some of the strident feminists and liberal politicians, claiming that women are getting the the short end of the stick in regards to pay - don't take them at their word, as to what they claim are mostly all exaggerations and faulty biased facts made to look like something which it is not. As the old saying goes (to paraphrase), the road to hell is almost always paved with good intentions. So it is in this case. Kill the PFA!

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann