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Marcia D. Greenberger

Marcia D. Greenberger

Posted: April 20, 2010 09:36 AM

Now is the Time for Fair Pay

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It seems like a long time since this winter's frigid temperatures, record-breaking snowstorms and impassable streets. We're so far into spring that Washington's cherry blossoms have come and gone. It's even time for Equal Pay Day! That's the day when the average woman, working all of 2009 and almost four months into 2010, earns what a man earns in 2009 alone.

It takes a woman, on average, almost 16 months just to make what her male counterpart earns in twelve, and she's finally gotten there on April 20 this year. A woman on average has to work almost all of these four months to earn the additional $10,622 that her male counterpart earned by New Year's day. That's a lot of money to be shortchanged, and a lot of needless time and sacrifice for women and their families.

Frankly, it makes me angry to think about how much women needed that $10,622 for their hard work last year, and every year. But getting angry isn't nearly as good as getting the Paycheck Fairness Act passed. The Act would take this country's legal protections against pay discrimination, first passed 47 years ago, and bring them into the 21st century.

The Paycheck Fairness Act passed the House of Representatives in January, and now women of this country are looking to the Senate to step up and do the right thing and finally pass the law. Now is the time. No more seasons coming and going, without women having the law on their side, and the paychecks they deserve.

 
 
 
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ThatsTheTheWayItIs
religion, ideology, partisanship are delusional
10:16 AM on 04/21/2010
This article quotes average male vs female pay.

How about median male vs female pay?
That is, how is a typical/midpoint female paid relative to the equivalent male?

Average is meaningless.
Average pay after inflation went up some 28% under Bush, but median pay went down.
What do you think - are most Americans better off now than before Bush?
No, they are not, because averages are a lie.
I have a Math degree, specialized in probably and statistics, so I know how to lie with them, too.

This is the fourth HP feminist article on this subject, and none has quoted median wages.
ThatsTheTheWayItIs
religion, ideology, partisanship are delusional
10:08 AM on 04/21/2010
I've already posted on the two previous articles on this subject, which did the same thing. I'm too lazy to go find my other posts. So don't bother asking for proof.

Her stats are completely misleading.
They are NOT for women working the same job as a man, it's across all jobs.

90% of the rich are male, 98% of overpaid execs are male. That makes the average meaningless.

Like the man with one hand in ice and the other in fire saying "on the average, I'm comfortable".

Maybe there should be more women who are rich and overpaid; I think less of either is better.
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John Galt2
My life is my own...
08:12 AM on 04/21/2010
Long on rhetoric - short on specifics.

What are the details of this act? Exactly how is pay unfairness measured/determined? Do real inequities exist, and if so what data can be cited for support? How does this proposed law cure those real inequities?

Hard to evaluate the author's position without the details.
02:17 AM on 04/21/2010
Women and men have been on this planet for an equal amount of time. If we (women) can't get it together to make as much as men, it's our fault and problem.
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elbzee
Fear is the mind-killer
11:19 AM on 04/21/2010
Ummmmm... What???
11:38 PM on 04/20/2010
As the father of daughters, I definately support the cause. However, now, this very moment in economic history, is not the time to be demanding full equality between the sexes. Men are losing their jobs at much higher rates than women are and are taking much longer to find replacement jobs than women do. Until the economy is no longer a disaster, I'd prefer my daughters having better prospects for lower paying jobs than few prospects for a job at all.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
cloudminder
10:18 PM on 04/20/2010
women who don't have kids and don't marry
are also more susceptible to being laid off
bosses openly figure into the equation "if the employee has mouths to feed at home"
and single women without kids get paid less because the boss thinks they can get buy with less
10:12 PM on 04/20/2010
Is it possible that men make more money than women do...because that's the way women want it?

Women like men with money. So, essentially, men's mating opportunities hinge on their income. All men know this deep down inside. I believe men are more money-driven than women are, because they know this is how women are judging them. Just like women are more driven to try to look younger; because they know this is how men are judging them.

I think the equal pay thing is largely, in this day and age, just politically correct rhetoric that doesn't pass the smell test.
itolduso
lateral thinker
12:07 AM on 04/21/2010
Actually, I was drawn to my man cause he does his own laundry.
03:13 AM on 04/21/2010
Is it possible that men make more money than women do...because that's the way women want it?

----------------------------------------------------------
Correct!

Women show their vision of man' s ideal place in society in the men
they seek out to date or marry. They prefer to marry up; not down.

They prefer the man in their life be noticeably stronger and more aggressive,
more sucessful and slightly more educated than she.And they carry that
subcosncioulsy into the work place. They don't check their sexual identity at the door.
Hey have difficulty being overtly aggressive or dominate even with male subordinates.

men, on the other hand, have no ambivalence about being the "strong one"
in the relationship-or in the workplace
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TraceyES
09:20 AM on 04/21/2010
"They prefer the man in their life be noticeably stronger and more aggressive,
more sucessful and slightly more educated than she."

Got evidence for this?
09:50 PM on 04/20/2010
Dear Ms. Greenberger,

Do you think the fact that is is essentially only men that perform the top 20 or 30 most dangerous jobs in the US might be relevant to this issue? There is typically a premium placed on such work.

Example statistics:

http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/13/pf/dangerousjobs/

How do you even compare salaries for these professions? How many female roofers or timber cutters or sewer workers, for example, are there to possibly survey?
nam medic
Service above Self ...Always
07:14 PM on 04/20/2010
Oprah the billionaire, female Army medic in Iraq 21K a year. And you talk of equal pay and justice!

47,000 men killed in action in Vietnam,one Army female nurse KIA. Talk to me about justice!

Bill Gates-Microsoft , Steve Jobs- Apple , Michael Dell - Dell , Meg Whitman- Ebay, Carly Fiorina-HP

Business Giants all. Woman,Give up Law and get real jobs. contribute like Meg and Carly
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TraceyES
06:33 PM on 04/20/2010
No doubt you'll soon hear the braying that women make less money because they make "different lifestyle choices." As in...women more often have to miss work because little Jimmy has a cold.

Which begs the question...WHY is it women most often have to leave work to pick up little Jimmy when he presumably has a male parent as well?
07:12 PM on 04/20/2010
Absolutely, fathers should be leaving work 50% of the time to take care of kid "problems"!

And, let me amplify on this for the coming braying, most of the studies are calibrated to account for other "lifestyle choices". The difference in pay is based on the same job, time in service, education, experience, etc.. It really isn't women asking to be paid the same as a man after she has been out of the workforce for 5 years. It is the woman that has come up in the ranks right next to the man and worked just as hard, just as long, and still gets paid 75 cents on the dollar for what that man does.
02:47 AM on 04/21/2010
WHY is it women most often have to leave work to pick up little Jimmy when he presumably has a male parent as well?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Because women marry men who are *more*, not less, aggressive
and assertive than they are.

Why? Because they want a man who is
who is a bit stronger, and more successful than they.
And they get twhat they want...a man who is the ultimate decision
maker when push comes to shove.

If she could win a power struggle against him she would
find him "sexually unattractive" and not masculine or confident enough,
and would soon begin to despise him

women are submissive-in the *emotional* aspects of sexuality
they will not marry or even date a man who is shorter, less athletic,
earns substantially less, less educated or worse,
more compassionate, or physically not as strong as she.

But you rarely find a man who finds a woman who is less successful, less intelligent
or less educated to be ipso facto "unattractive"

.
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TraceyES
09:22 AM on 04/21/2010
"women are submissive-in the *emotional* aspects of sexuality"

Speak from your own experiences, please. Your personal findings do not lead to valid conclusions about society in general.