One of the topics of debate in the news today is the gender gap and as I ponder the issue I can’t help wondering about the story behind the story.
I assume it goes without saying that if two people are doing the same job for the same time with the same performance they should get the same pay.
If John and Mary are hired the same week and work for 3 yrs and are both pretty good workers then they should get basically the same pay.
On the other hand if Mary takes a year or two off to start a family then should she be paid the same as John, who has 2 yrs more experience ?
Or if Mary is a much better worker, should John get the same pay based on time instead of work product ?
Or what if Mary is an attorney and John a gardener ? Should they get the same wages ?
This is part of the problem with some of the statistics we hear. They often don’t take those things into account. They look at all workers rather than workers by profession. They don’t take into account time on job or quality of work.
This is not to suggest that there isn’t a problem with wage inequality, but if we are going to address it should we not address it honestly and directly ?
After all if we eliminate the factors above and still find inequality (which I suspect we would) there would be far less for the other side to argue.