Pay differences between men and women: demystifying myths | News from the world

Thousands of companies have reported their numbers on the pay gap between men and women, revealing that men are paid on average more than women in the majority of UK companies.

Despite the findings, myths and misconceptions about the pay gap between men and women persist. We have collected some of the most prevalent myths to help you manage the pay gap deniers.

There is no pay gap between men and women

The most extreme myth is that the pay gap between men and women is a lie perpetuated by feminists who use statistics in a dishonest way to advance their cause.

This view is shared by a small but energetic coalition of right wing think tanks, Jordan Peterson, and human rights advocates.

Kate Andrews, badociate director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said in the Spectator that women are "bombarded with inflated statistics, handpicked and designed to make them feel helpless."

It is right to point out the flaws in the statistics. The median gap is calculated by aligning all men's and women's salaries from top to bottom and comparing the figure in the middle for each bad. As with all averages, it eliminates nuances and does not take into account differences in roles, age or specific work experience.

But the numbers are an important indicator of structural inequality. The data show that eight out of ten companies pay more men than men and that some companies pay men twice as much as women on average. The median gap is a blunt but powerful tool. To understand why the pay gap exists, we need more, more detailed data.

Women have children

Some are more charitable and recognize that the pay gap exists. But paying less to women is inevitable, because there are inherent differences between the work of men and women, the main one being childcare.

Ben Southwood writes in a blog post for Adam Smith Institute: "Women leave the labor market for crucial years, which brings them back considerably in terms of the labor market. They decide to take time to have and raise children … maybe go to a more flexible or less demanding job. "

Once again, there is an element of truth here. When reported by age, the NSO finds that the earnings gap between men and women aged 18 to 39 full-time is close to zero, but is starting to widen for people over 40 years of age. employees are included in the calculation, the pay gap between men and women widens after 30 years.

Martin Daubney
(@MartinDaubney)

So when you delete the biggest drivers of #GenderPayGap (children / part-time work), the income gap is almost non-existent (and in some studies, bads earn 42% more than heterobadual women)

March 22, 2018

Women choose to have children and many will reduce their work time when they do. But that does not mean that their career has to stop because of that.

Men also choose to have children but the impact on their career is virtually nonexistent. Shared Parental Leave (SPL) was introduced in 2015, but only 3.5% of eligible families chose it in 2018, according to a study by the PowWowNow telecommunications company. One-third of fathers who did not take SPL said they would not be able to afford it, according to a study by the Working Families campaign group, calling on the government to increase statutory paternity benefits.

The figures also show that the pay gap between men and women often begins long before women have children. Barely a year after graduation, women graduates can expect to earn £ 3,600 less than their male counterparts, according to the Department of Education.

Women work in less profitable industries

Another myth is that the pay gap between men and women is inevitable because women choose lower paid jobs because of well-defined biological characteristics.

In an interview with Cathy Newman of Channel 4, Jordan Peterson said that these innate differences explained why the majority of nurses were women and the majority of engineers were men. "Men and women will not be clbadified in the same categories if you let them do it themselves," he said.

"These are insurmountable differences … if you let men and women make their own choices, you will not get the same results."

To use Peterson's example, it is true that engineering is dominated by men. In the UK, only 23% of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce are women. According to a 2018 study by the New Scientist, women working in STEM receive 20% less than their male colleagues each year.

Peterson attributes this gender imbalance to innate differences between men and women. But the theory that women have fewer skills for science subjects has been repeatedly debunked. Finding the causes of male dominance is more complex, but the absence of female role models and stereotypes about male and female jobs are two well-established theories.

Emma Griffin, a professor of modern British history at the University of East Anglia, has convincingly described how work is baded and how these distinctions have become natural.

"According to the Victorians, women were naturally inclined to motherhood and home, while men were" naturally "destined to rule, to conquer and to work. And low female wages are not just an expression of this worldview, they have also helped create it, "Griffin wrote.

According to the 2015 ONS data, women still perform the bulk of unpaid housework, including childcare, laundry and housework. Although the distribution of unpaid work is a general social problem, individual businesses can do a lot.

Some UBS employees suffer long-term cuts in their premiums after maternity leave, while research by the Commission for Equality and Human Rights has revealed that many UK employers believe that recruiting women ".

To close their pay gap, companies must ensure that women are on management short lists, be transparent about pay and promotions, and encourage men to take shared parental leave, as directed of the government.

Additional report by Anisa Holmes