What’s the truth about Equal Pay Day? National Review’s Carrie Lukas sheds some light on the data.
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That’s just not what the statistic tells us. The Department of Labor doesn’t compare two co-workers, one male and one female, but rather simply tallies up the median earnings of all full-time working women and all full-time working men and compares the two.
The Department of Labor ignores, for example, that the average man working full-time spends two hours more each week on the job than does the average full-time working woman. It shouldn’t be a surprise — or considered unfair — that someone who works longer hours also earns more money. They also don’t take into account differences in industry, years of experience, education, and specialty. Men suffer the overwhelming majority of workplace deaths and major injuries. To get people to take on dangerous and physically grueling jobs, businesses have to sweeten the pot with higher pay. Men even have longer commutes on average than women do. They often take on the extra commuting burden in order to take a job that pays more.
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