The Stout Republican

A great article by the venerable MCH.

The result of that experience was a long-term study of gender differences in negotiations when asking for “pay raises, resources, or promotions.” Some of the results are telling:

In one early study, Babcock brought 74 volunteers into a laboratory to play a word game called Boggle. The volunteers were told they would be paid anywhere from $3 to $10 for their time. After playing the game, each student was given $3 and asked if the sum was okay. Eight times more men than women asked for more money.

Babcock then ran the experiment a different way. She told a new set of 153 volunteers that they would be paid $3 to $10 but explicitly added that the sum was negotiable. Many more now asked for more money, but the gender gap remained substantial: 58 percent of the women, but 83 percent of the men, asked for more.

Now, feminists would have us set precise salaries for every job and dole them out to each worker, regardless of competence or negotiating skill, just so that we can prevent the dreaded pay gap (which is also caused, in part, by women workers’ decision to take time out of the workplace to have children and raise them). But the workplace is a market, in which everyone is working in his own self-interest.

Those who play hardball sometimes get rewarded for it, and if you’re unwilling to play the game, you can’t make society entirely to blame for your lower salary. An employer doesn’t have an obligation to pay you any more than you’re willing to assert you’re worth.

I think there’s a point to be made, click through of course and visit the original Washington Post article, but I personally believe this wage gap thing is very self induced. This isn’t a blame the victim mentality…and let me explain why.

First off, in a Capitalist system, where is the self interest of a corporation to hire a man over a woman who is more qualified? Businesses that want to last in the marketplace need the best talent, regardless of race/sex.

Second off. Many of these studies don’t account for choice. I know personally of many women who sacrificed their career to raise children. This isn’t a bad thing if someone wants to make that choice. As many people have said, the biggest failure of the women’s movement was that they convinced women they could have their cake and eat it too. Full time mom, full time employee. Doesn’t really work…because (let me run the numbers really quick), that’s about 200% of real life time. Some moms have found that in their view, being a good parent sometimes means staying at home…sacrificing a career to raise a child. It’s not a dishonorable thing…but they still enter into the statistical means and averages.

Third, new report from the New York Times today…and I quote (my interjections in bold):

In 1970, all New York women in their 20s made $7,000 less than men, on average, adjusted for inflation. By 2000, they were about even. In 2005, according to an analysis of the latest census results they were making about $5,000 more: a median wage of $35,653, or 117 percent of the $30,560 reported by men in that age group. (Gloria Alred…times to get that surgery and switch sides…men are now being shat upon, and it’s your duty to make sure everyone is forcefully made equal.)

Women in their 20s also make more than men in Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and a few other big cities. But only in Dallas do young women’s wages surpass men’s by a larger amount than in New York. In Dallas, women make 120 percent of what men do, although their median wage there, $25,467, was much lower than that of women in New York. (The cost of living is also much lower…I can guarantee you a Dallas chick will have more spending cash)

Nationally, women in their 20s made a median income of $25,467, compared with $28,523 for men. (That’s probably in them thar red states where they’re forced to get pregnant and bury their dreams next to the family dog)

When I worked for the government for an intern stint back in the day, I had one of those…enlightening…moments with a harassment instructor. He went over all this wage gap information from a sex and race angle. What sticks with me now is what he had me do. He called me up in front of the “class” with a young black woman (he was a large black man with muscles himself, this comes into play later). He had us stand at one end of the room and walk towards him, me with large steps, her walking with heel to toe. Needless to say, I walked faster. “This”, he said, “is what happened with white males. They got here quicker.” He then told us to stop, and he put his massive frame in front of me and told us to walk. She started walking, and he, while standing in my way, dared me to try to get by. HA! “This,” he said, “is how the government equalizes now. She doesn’t move faster son…you stop. You don’t have to like it, that’s just how it is.”

When you work for the government, you get graded on a point system when an available position comes up. Points are added for education, years experience, military service, and depending on what quota they need to fill to be “fair”, race and sex. Me, I thought judging someone by the content of their character was the way to go, but in the name of stopping -isms, we judge people by race and sex (see Supreme Court). So that’s why I say…if these ladies are smarter, more capable, and do a better job. Good. They deserve more pay. I’m not going to say that someone who earns more because they have more skills, is unfair to me…that would make me a communist…and communists suck.

Fin

Social Issues