Tuesday was Equal Pay Day, a day spon­sored by the National Com­mittee on Pay Equity to raise awareness of the fact that women make 79.6 cents for every dollar men make. The day was chosen because it rep­re­sents how far into 2017 women must work in order to make the same amount that men made in 2016. Their website states that “because women earn less, on average, than men, they must work longer for the same amount of pay.” This statement implies some sort of sys­tematic dis­crim­i­nation against female workers, when in fact there are many factors — con­ve­niently omitted from almost all fem­inist nar­ra­tives — that con­tribute to the so-called “wage gap.”



Pri­marily, women are more likely to take time off work for childcare, leading to less expe­rience and fewer oppor­tu­nities for career growth later in life. Some blame oppressive societal gender roles for urging women to be the care­takers of the home, but the reality is that women are less likely to devote the majority of their lives to their careers — leading to fewer overall wage earnings. Addi­tionally, women are far more likely to take lower-stress, lower-risk jobs than men — such as sec­re­taries, nursing aides, and primary edu­cation teachers — which tend to be lower-paying.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Ser­vices show that men make up 93 percent of high-risk jobs — such as mining, flight engi­neering, and law enforcement. Con­se­quently, they are far more likely than women to incur serious injuries or be killed on the job, and com­pen­sation for these risks helps to account for the exis­tence of a wage gap. In fact, a BLS report on fatal occu­pa­tional injuries found that of approx­i­mately 4,800 people killed as a result of a work-related injury in 2015, almost 4,500 of them were men — a stunning number that receives little attention when com­paring the wages of men and women.



Fur­thermore, the 79-cent figure fails to take into account dif­fer­ences in work expe­rience and par­ticular spe­cial­iza­tions within any given occu­pation — a pedi­a­trician makes less than a surgeon, just as an art pro­fessor makes less than an engi­neering pro­fessor.

According to the Michigan State Uni­versity faculty and aca­demic staff salary list for the 2012 – 2013 school year, eight of the 30 pro­fessors of civil and envi­ron­mental engi­neering were women, with fourteen pro­fessors in the department salaried at over $100,000. In the art, art history, & design department, however, 26 of the 43 pro­fessors were female. Despite having more faculty in this department, only three pro­fessors had salaries over $100,000. The dif­fer­ences in salary between the depart­ments are explained simply by supply and demand: there is more demand for expertise in engi­neering outside of academia than there is for expertise in art or art history, so those pro­fessors, be they men or women, are able to command higher salaries. The fact that there are more male engi­neers is not a result of dis­crim­i­nation, it is a result of per­sonal choice.



The truth is, the salaries for the two depart­ments showed no signs of pay dis­crim­i­nation in favor of men. In every instance of a female pro­fessor being paid less than a male pro­fessor with the same job title, the male pro­fessor had more years of expe­rience or some other salary-influ­encing factor, such as a sec­ondary job at the uni­versity. In fact, in the art department, there appeared to be reverse dis­crim­i­nation — there were three unex­plained examples of female pro­fessors who earned more than their male coun­ter­parts with the same job title and years of work expe­rience.

Most dif­fer­ences in the salaries of men and women are easily explained by com­paring other factors, such as expe­rience, dif­ferent levels of spe­cial­ization in par­ticular fields, and per­sonal choices. So, if an inequitable wage gap exists, and if it as vast as some claim, where is the evi­dence? Where are the law­suits? Where are the legal firms rep­re­senting the victims of wage dis­crim­i­nation, and where are the payroll sta­tistics from com­panies, uni­ver­sities, and orga­ni­za­tions in which women are paid less than men? They do not exist, simply because a gender-based dis­crim­i­natory wage gap does not exist. I have yet to see a fem­inist argument, based in facts rather than in gen­er­al­iza­tions, that proves oth­erwise.

Ms. Watson is a junior studying pol­itics and jour­nalism.