Choices Have Consequences

The so-called wage gap is brought up so often by our friends on the left, and has been debunked so often, that you might wonder if, by bringing it up, they're being intentionally dishonest:

I've written extensively on how the gender wage gap would be more accurately referred to as the "gender earnings gap," because the gap is due mostly to choices women make and not discrimination.

But now you don't have to take my word for it, you can listen to Claudia Goldin, an economics professor at Harvard University. Goldin spoke to Stephen Dubner, the journalist behind the popular podcast "Freakanomics," in a segment about what really causes the gap.

As one can imagine, Goldin comes to the same conclusion that I and many others have: That the gap is due mostly to choices men and women make in their careers and not discrimination.

"Does that mean that women are receiving lower pay for equal work?" Goldin asked after listening to clips of President Obama and comedienne Sarah Silverman claim that women earn 77 cents to the dollar that men earn. "That is possibly the case in certain places, but by and large it's not that, it's something else."

That "something else," is choice — in the careers that women take, the hours they work and the time off they take. Dubner asked her about evidence that discrimination plays a role in the gap, to which Goldin responded that such a "smoking gun" no longer exists...

Goldin argued that once you account for a number of factors, including taking time off from work and different careers, then there isn't "tons of evidence that it's true discrimination."

Goldin also suggested that the old claim that men are just better at bargaining doesn't contribute much to the gap. She said studies have shown men and women show up to a job straight out of college (meaning they have the same education level) and earn the same amount...

And for all the complaints that it's "society" that forces women to take time off, that same "society" stigmatizes men who do and force men to earn more once a child is born. "Stay-at-home-dads" often conjure up images of unsuccessful beta males. Maybe if there weren't such a stigma surrounding fathers who want to take time off of work to care for their children while mothers pursue their career, the gap wouldn't exist or would even be reversed.

Anyone who makes the "77 cents on a dollar" claim is either a liar, an idiot, or both.