I just read Ms. Allie Woeber’s editorial in support of the Paycheck Fairness Act of 2014. The basis of her support is the often-quoted statistic that the average working woman makes 77 cents on the dollar compared to the average man. Even our esteemed President uses this intellectually lazy rationale.
As most honest recent studies have shown, not only is the overall gap closer to 5%, but young, single, childless females are actually out-earning their male counterparts by up to 20%, depending on the metro area studied. What the 77% statistic fails to account for are differences in education, training, experience, hours, hazardous conditions, time off for pregnancies, etc. When researchers correct for these factors, the difference rapidly disappears.
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Ms. Woeber’s reliance on a disingenuous statistic is commonplace in the entire political arena. Notwithstanding the fact that “everybody does it”, she should have taken a more scholarly approach and actually done some research before mimicking the behavior of our President, who is known for using his own facts to make his arguments.
We don’t need more legislation designed to employ more attornies, especially laws based upon junk science. Existing laws are sufficient in providing remedies for those women or men who are truly the victims of paycheck discrimination.
Marv McWherter
Mebane, NC
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