Wage Comparison by Era

[Madner Kami]

The "wage gap" is really an earnings gap, and it only appears when you take the overall averages of all men and compare them to the overall averages of all women. The "for the same job" stuff is pure fantasy, and has actually been illegal since 1963. The reason for the "gap" comes down largely to men working jobs that are more dangerous and thus pay more, and just work more hours overall in comparison to women, because men are more likely to be workaholics and women are more likely to give a shit about having a social life.

Contractual hours per week: 21. I can't even remember the last time I worked less than 30h a week. The entire last year was absolutely crazy as well, as I helped renovating a different market. We had a weekly work-time of 50h the entire year. That really left a mark both on my wallet and my body.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

A lot of give and take with the 78 cents on the dollar moniker for the issue. Trying to get my nose into it a little more, 78 cents on the dollar is an unadjusted figure while the adjusted is a range of 80-98 cents. The average is a really porous indicator for argument purposes, but it does warrant speculation. At the end of the day that adjusted figure indicates that the unadjusted figure ranges from marginally relevant to 98% valid.

It kinda sucks when issues are only considered as a product of discrimination, but I don't think it's totally ruled out in the landscape.

[Madner Kami]

There might be some discrimination in there somewhere, but it's really miniscule. Almost everything can be explained by men working more hours, overall longer in their life and picking jobs that tend to be better paid. Women almost universally tend to pick up jobs that are less well paid, because those jobs generally coincide with the jobs you can do half-time in order to have spare time for family and housework or jobs that are less physically demanding and consequentially less well paid.

For example: How many female oil-workers do you know? Female sewege-workers? Heck, factory-workers? Women become hair-dressers, make-up artists and retailers. That's all there really is to the wage-gap and in general, it's choice of life, not discrimination.

[Robovski]

The "wage gap" is really an earnings gap, and it only appears when you take the overall averages of all men and compare them to the overall averages of all women. The "for the same job" stuff is pure fantasy, and has actually been illegal since 1963. The reason for the "gap" comes down largely to men working jobs that are more dangerous and thus pay more, and just work more hours overall in comparison to women, because men are more likely to be workaholics and women are more likely to give a shit about having a social life.

Men also tend to work more hazardous jobs, which should be compensated for, and women are far more likely and able to take a break from a career than men to have children.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

There might be some discrimination in there somewhere, but it's really miniscule. Almost everything can be explained by men working more hours, overall longer in their life and picking jobs that tend to be better paid. Women almost universally tend to pick up jobs that are less well paid, because those jobs generally coincide with the jobs you can do half-time in order to have spare time for family and housework or jobs that are less physically demanding and consequentially less well paid.

For example: How many female oil-workers do you know? Female sewege-workers? Heck, factory-workers? Women become hair-dressers, make-up artists and retailers. That's all there really is to the wage-gap and in general, it's choice of life, not discrimination.

Well I'm not prepared to rest on miniscule given the pacing of how women's suffrage has developed since 1900. My gut tells me that it shaped social standards to the point where there's a bit of an in-club, while established gender conventions can go so far as to expose people to unnecessary discouragement (no true Scotsman).

[Madner Kami]

Go visit a college or university. Pay attention to which courses are overwhelmingly chosen by women. Do the same with courses where men are the main audience (if there are men left to pay attention to, given that to an increasing degree, studying shifts to being an all-female club in many western countries). Just do the math from there. It really is that simple, whether you accept that fact or choose to believe otherwise is entirely up to you.

You may feel free to argue, that women are educated by society into that direction, but ultimately, it is up to the individual to forge their path in life. Blaming society for your choices only gets you so far and if you really want to help women, then stop taking their agency for themselves away from them and hold them accountable for their choices. You don't raise self-reliant adult beings by telling them as a child that everyone but themselves are responsible for their actions and unfortunately, that is exactly what we are doing all the time by perpetuating myths like the wage-gap, the glass-ceiling or patriarchy.