Drake asked Gay, a Republican, whether he believed there is a pay gap between the genders, and if he didn’t, how he would explain the differences in men’s and women’s wages. Drake also asked the lawmaker whether there was anything the Legislature can do to narrow the gap.

“They look at how many sick days you get in a year,” he said. “Say you get 12 sick days a year. If they go for two years and they’ve only taken three sick days, they’re going to cash in the remaining 21 sick days. That’s a gender thing and it hurts getting [the gender wage gap] rectified. Some of the misuses and abuses that go on there, and it’s predictable, it’s statistics that are written in stone. As long as you have people who behave differently on it between the two genders, it hurts the chances of getting that gender wage gap shrunk all the way down. We’ll make small progress on it, but they won’t make it [go away.]”