Women are not paid 80 cents on the dollar than every man makes, but you’ll keep hearing that statistic from Democrats during election season anyway.

Its grievance narrative is too convenient.

At the Democratic debate on Wednesday night, Kamala Harris touted her policies for women by bemoaning the much-decried gender pay gap.

"The reality also is that women are not paid equal for equal work in America," she said. "We passed the Equal Pay Act in 1963. Fast forward to the year of our lord 2019, and women are paid 80 cents on the dollar, black women 61 cents, Native American 58 cents, Latinos 53 cents."

There is a pay gap, but it's not what Democrats would like to think. When you control for factors such as experience and job title, the pay gap shrinks to just a few cents. A problem? Certainly. Just not the national emergency that Harris would like you to think.

But the narrative of oppression lends itself to more government intervention, which is just too good to pass up.

"So my policy is about, there's a whole collection of work that I am doing that is focused on women and working women in America and the inequities and therefore the injustice that women in America are facing that needs to be resolved and addressed," Harris continued.

Harris has proposed mandating equal pay by fining companies with pay disparities and requiring medium- and large-sized companies to be certified by the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission.

"To the extent pay disparities do exist for similar jobs, companies will be required to show the gap is based on merit, performance, or seniority–not gender," her plan reads.

There's just one problem: If you control for those factors, the pay gap virtually disappears.