Undermining Women’s Choices     2/25/1999

Recently, President Clinton decried ”the demeaning practice of wage discrimination in our workplaces“ (Wall Street Journal, 2/4/99). He endorsed the Paycheck Fairness Act introduced by Sen. Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut). This bill would:

• Allow women to sue their employers for unlimited damages
• Prohibit employers from punishing workers who share salary information
• Increase training for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) workers who handle wage discrimination claims (USA Today, 1/30/99).

However, it is already illegal to pay unequal wages to equally qualified men and women who do the same job. Such discrimination is rare, and women win suits in those rare cases.

The President also announced a $14 million proposal, as part of the fiscal 2000 budget, to close the so-called wage gap between men and women. This proposal would:

• Triple the number of enforcement workers at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Provide technical assistance to employers on how to comply with equal pay laws
• Create public service announcements alerting women to their rights (USA Today, 1/30/99).

The assumptions influencing this proposal are faulty, at best. The common phrase reiterated in the pay equity debate is ”75 cents on the dollar“—the supposed amount that the average woman earns compared to the average man. However, the average woman has less work experience and is more likely to choose a job that allows her to balance work and family or to take time off from work to bear and raise children (Wall Street Journal, 2/4/99).

Hence, the ”75 cents“ statistic arises from the choices women have made, not from any blatant discrimination. When women and men in the same careers and positions are compared, a ”wage gap“ is non-existent. When adjustments are made for age, experience, education, occupation and position, salary disparities are practically nil (Wall Street Journal, 2/4/99). So, to eliminate the average wage gap, equal pay for different jobs—”comparable worth“—would be necessary. That policy is dangerous and unrealistic.

In reality, women have taken incredible strides in the workplace. For instance, today nearly equal numbers of men and women are graduating from the nation’s schools of law and medicine (New York Times, 2/20/99). Overall, women comprise 60 percent of college graduates (Washington Post, 2/21/99). In 1996, women held 48 percent of managerial and professional specialty occupations (Wall Street Journal, 1/11/99). A recent survey of working women (Washington Post, 2/21/99) revealed:

• Fifty-four percent of women who work outside the home said they have a major degree of influence in their company.
• Seventy percent of the women believe their company will have a key female leader in the next 15 years.
• Ninety-two percent of all women who work outside the home are more influential than most people realize.
• Fifty-eight percent believe that in the next 20 years, women will be the dominant force in U.S. business and politics.

Women are also leaving the restrictive atmosphere of big-company life and starting their own businesses. Today, women represent the majority of new entrepreneurs. For example, Janet Hanson left Wall Street to start her own firm, which now manages $3.5 billion for 300 clients (Wall Street Journal, 1/11/99). So, women are stepping out on their own by choice and accepting any salary changes that accompany those choices.

All of these facts illustrate that women can—and are—making it on their own, a fact that pay equity/comparable worth supporters refuse to accept. The real hardship women face is having to compromise staying home with family and working outside the home for financial reasons. Women who choose to stay at home with their children have not received the respect and support they deserve. Ultimately, the family suffers from the ”me-first“ workplace mentality fostered by government meddling.

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