The display of pandering to the ignorance and greed of voters that is the totality of the Democratic campaign has mainly focused on college education lately, but Senator Harris has put forth a stunning proposal that caters to voters who believe in the idea that we have a gender pay gap. That creaky old “statistic” that women are paid less than men are for comparable work is behind her plan to have the federal government fine companies unless they’re able to somehow prove to the satisfaction of government officials (all of whom we must assume will be champing at the bit to do their part for social justice) that they are not guilty of any pay discrimination.


The idea is flagrantly unconstitutional and an open invitation to abuse. Moreover, it’s completely unjustified since the alleged “pay gap” is accounted for by the choices women make. In this recent paper, economics professor Claudia Goldin demonstrates once again a point that serious students of the labor market have been making for decades: the supposed earnings gap is caused by the fact that many women prefer jobs with lower pay but with more attractive conditions.

Any individual who feels the need to earn more has lots of ways of making the trade-off between income and other considerations. But count on politicians like Senator Harris to turn what is and ought to be a matter of personal choice into an excuse for a huge expansion of federal power.