Friday, March 01, 2013

Bad Statistics

There's nothing stickier than a bad "statistic", and this one is one of the stickiest and one of the worst:
Everyone from the President on down recites the mantra that women earn only 77 cents to the male dollar. However, a Dept of Labor report in 2010 concluded unambiguously that the principal reason for economic difference was personal choice - perhaps not a free choice but one made by persons in the economy. One huge example: some 85% of women have children and the average mother tends to leave the labor force for 5-8 years and is much more likely than a male to work part-time. Both lead to reduced income. Add that males take the higher-paying jobs such as commercial fishing, which are dangerous and lead to much higher fatality and injury rates, and we begin to derive a picture different from the conventional statistician's view that if there's a discrepancy it must be imposed not chosen.link

3 comments:

  1. momof44:57 AM

    You can see this in medicine; most women choose the lower-paying specialties (rarely surgery)and also tend to accept lower salaries in return for shorter/more predictable hours. A relative who works on Wall Street said that a new woman hire (from top-5 MBA program)left the company after less than 3 months; she wouldn't take the 80+ hour weeks (including weekends) - and she had no kids.

    I'm sure I remember reading that, compared to men in the same job/specialty, unmarried women without kids earn at least as much as men. Women tend to put family first.

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  2. The only way these stats are relevant is if they examine the same work with the same experience, period. You take off 5 years to raise you r kid to school age? I totally respect your decision. But, you did put yourself 5 years back. I am absolutely positive that a first year alaska crab fisher man and a first year alaskan crab fisherwoman would make exactly the same amount.

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  3. Anonymous11:36 AM

    Can anyone show us a job where a man is paid more than a woman because the employer is discriminating? I seriously doubt anyone can. However, Democrats need their victims and when you can argue 50% of the population are victims based on a flawed statistic, who's going to stop them? At one time our press would call out these lies, but not anymore.

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