Another Side of the Money Divide

For years, as a board member of the National Organization for Women, I protested the gender pay gap as a reflection of sex discrimination. Years of research proved me wrong. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the pay of full-time working women is 80% of men’s. The misinterpretation comes when we assume it is for the same work. It is not. To earn more, men are more likely to take hazardous jobs, not leave the workplace, work longer hours, relocate, travel, work in the less-fulfilling fields of engineering, computers and finance, take risks, commute farther, work on commission, etc. When all the differences are equal, it is women who earn more for the same work.

-- Warren Farrell, author of “Why Men Earn More.”