Gender pay gap

Cynthia M. Allen’s Friday column, “The persistent myth of the gender wage gap and what’s behind it,” missed my understanding of cash in my hands.

She wrote that women choose low-paying jobs, such as teaching, social work and counseling. Men choose engineering, mathematics and computer science, which she believes deserve more pay because male jobs are more “labor-intensive and dangerous.”

This stance assumes that math is more important than other subjects. This is the problem.

This patriarchal perk of more money for math types persists because females allow it. Be a changer, Cynthia Allen. Ask for a pay raise after you remove the sarcastic, condemning tone from your column.

Allen quoted various “experts” on why all the reported statistics are bogus while ignoring comments from these same folks in the same articles she referred to that would weaken her case.

Some of her references are confusing, such as one that says there is not a wage gap but an earnings gap. I’m not sure what that means.

I hope she read the comprehensive April 4 article in the Star-Telegram about differences in gender pay in Texas state functions, which also noted that there is a lot of flexibility in the ways supervisors decide how to evaluate employees when raises are being decided.

Allen claimed the gender pay gap is a “persistent myth.”

Politicians and popular culture icons often spout gendered pay statistics without taking into account educational, racial and experiential backgrounds, but the gender pay gap is undeniable even after accounting for education and experience.

In a study by the American Association of University Women, 2008 statistics adjusted for occupation, economic sector, hours worked per week, multiple jobs, months unemployed since graduation, undergraduate GPA, undergraduate major, undergraduate institution sector, institution selectivity, age, region of residence and marital status showed on average women earned 93 percent of male salaries.

A seven-percent difference in wages is significant considering the average graduate’s disposable income is around 20 percent of total salary.

Employers unfairly compensating women for their work is perfectly demonstrated in U.S. women soccer players’ salaries and bonus payments to the senior national teams.

Despite winning four Olympics gold medals and three World Cups, playing more games than the men, and generating more income for U.S. soccer than the men’s team, the women players receive less than half the salaries of their male counterparts

Systemic gender wage inequality is a fact.

Allen’s Friday column was the best I’ve seen.

I was in a large medical group in another state for more than 30 years. The female physicians and male physicians received the same salary. However, the female physicians were given time off, with pay, to have their babies. So the female physicians received more money per hours worked than the male physicians.

I see that if a woman decides to forgo marriage and have no children she can still expect to earn 5 cents less per hour. Yet Allen believes there’s no wage inequality. What am I missing?

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Gender pay gap."