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Today is Equal Pay Day. The day marks the point in the year when women are effectively working for free until next year due to the gender pay gap.

As if this is not infuriating enough, there is a small (hopefully) group of men who are not too sure that this is the case.

It is all fair to question statistics, but to then go on to give reasons why there is a gender pay gap, you are opening up a debate, one I am fully willing to take part in.

For that reason I have picked out some comments, that are a little hard to hear in 2016, but with the election of Trump, perhaps not too shocking.

They have been deliberately made anoymous.

The one who thinks we should wait till April next year... well, we have waited this long

"New legislation will require many employers to publish figures showing a snapshot of pay as of April 2017, within 12 months.

"So until April 2017 we won't actually know if this is true or not, at the moment it's just scaremongering from a women's rights group. If there's still a problem in April it can be looked at then."

Sam Smethers, chief executive of women’s rights group the Fawcett Society, said it will take 60 years for women’s pay to catch up with men’s at the current pace of progress. So what's a couple more months, ladies?

"Simples"

"The pay gap is determined by individual choices, e.g holidays, sickness, maternity leave, overtime, in fact it's a fact that men often take more overtime, take less holidays and phone in sick less than women, so if women want to earn as much as men, you must work as hard as men simples..."

Think of all the men in your place of work. Yes, they do work harder, longer hours. They never take days off. They all take less holidays. We have been blinded by feminist propaganda... Oh, wait a minute.

This statement alone makes a mockery of every working woman in the country.

Oh and for the record, maternity leave should have no impact on earning power, which is why many feminists fight for equality of parental leave and think men should also be able take time off too.

It's our choice to be paid less

"33% of statistics are made up, as the saying goes.



"The simple fact is that more women tend, by choice, to work in lower paid jobs... Better (but sexist) maternity laws also means considerably more time off for women too which obviously means less pay."

Obviously we all want a lower paid job that is why the gender pay gap exisits. It has nothing at all to do with the fact that many jobs that are thought to be 'traditional female' roles are often the lowest paid (but most important in many cases).

As Sam Smethers, chief executive of women’s rights group the Fawcett Society says in the ECHO today: "A root cause of the gender pay gap is that we don’t value the work done by women.

“Equal value goes to the heart of the fight for pay equality, because the reality is that if it is a sector dominated by women the pay will be lower.”

Woman aren't paid different for doing the same job

"Haven't been paying much attention to this in the news but my understanding of it is that men and woman aren't paid different for doing the same job, it's that jobs that women tend to do pay less then the jobs men tend to do?

"If that's correct I fail to see how this is gender pay gap, everyone has the choice to do almost any job regardless of their gender."

You heard it here first, women do not get paid less even if they do the same job. I mean this guy should know, right?

It is illegal for men and women doing the same job to be paid less, but it IS still happening and this contributes to the gender pay gap.

Nonsense spread by radical feminists

"More nonsense spread by radical feminists. The reality is that women work less hours than men, they make different lifestyle choices. It's a gender earnings gap, not a pay gap. Men don't get paid more for doing the same job."

These days you have to be a radical feminist to want equal pay. If that is true then according to a Fawcett Society study, 6 in 10 women say “it matters to me” that my employer is taking steps to reduce the gender pay gap. All radical feminists.

Don't worry, benefits are here to help!

"The gender pay gap is influenced by the female supported welfare state. Reform benefit payments to be less gender specific then you will have a levelling of pay.

"Child benefit is rewarded to the mother regardless of her income at the time. This in turn entitles the mother to a number of child supported benefits. Not the father, the mother."

Just to be clear, child benefit does not effect any means tested benefit claim as it is universal and given to the child's primary carer, which is, usually, the mother. And it certainly has nothing to do with your wage.

All about age

"Unless your under 30 where women get paid more on average."

Funnily enough, a study by the University of Warwick's Institute for Employment found just the opposite.

In the study, commissioned by the Higher Education Careers Service Unit - HECSU - it found that female graduates can earn £8,000 less than their male counterpart.

Anecdotal evidence is key

"No job I've ever worked in payed anyone different ......"

Well, there we go. This man saw it, so it must be true. Good to know all the jobs he has worked at have had open pay rates where he could see exactly what everyone earned.