WTF was Obama talking about with equal treatment & pay for women?

[Stephanie]

sums up the class warfare of this President who speaks over you with gibberish NONESENSE..some of you don't seem to mind how offensive it is
links in article at site

SNIP:
McClatchy wonders: How does the Obama White House stack up on equal pay?


posted at 9:21 am on January 30, 2014 by Ed Morrissey






In his rambling and wan State of the Union speech, Barack Obama tried using a cultural reference to score a little rhetorical flourish on an old canard. Leveraging his income inequality agenda, Obama claimed women make only 77 cents for every dollar a man does in the workplace, calling it a vestige of “Mad Men” society:

Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. A woman deserves equal pay for equal work. She deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job. A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship — and you know what, a father does, too. It’s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a “Mad Men” episode. This year, let’s all come together — Congress, the White House, and businesses from Wall Street to Main Street — to give every woman the opportunity she deserves. Because I firmly believe when women succeed, America succeeds.

This statistic has been repeatedly busted as false. Just before the 2012 election, economist Dean Kalahar knocked down the methodology behind “averaging” wages in a free market (via Power Line):

First of all, the wage gap is based on inappropriate use of data and statistical analysis. In the U.S. the 77% number is calculated by looking at the median yearly earnings of women to men. The median is defined as the middle value of all the wages in a given sample. Using the median is useful if we are comparing winter temperatures between New York and Tampa, where one dimensional data has validity, but applying it to humans that have free will and biological differences proves nothing except that demagoguery works.

Is the median wage lower for women? Absolutely it is, but the statistic is not an apples to apples, job for job comparison and thus has nothing to do with “paying women less than a man for doing the same job.” Using the median without taking into consideration specifics of individuals in the workplace is intentionally misleading or ignorant.

So what causes the variation in pay? Personal and workplace choices account for much of the gap. Labor Department research shows that men choose more dangerous and high stress jobs. Men choose higher paying career fields. And men hold more full time jobs, work longer hours, weekends, and nights than women. All these factors lead to higher wages regardless of gender.

Even feminist Hanna Rosin dismissed this metric last August, also concluding that the actual difference is (a) much smaller, and (b) due to “rational choices” made by women:

The official Bureau of Labor Department statistics show that the median earnings of full-time female workers is 77 percent of the median earnings of full-time male workers. But that is very different than “77 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as men.” The latter gives the impression that a man and a woman standing next to each other doing the same job for the same number of hours get paid different salaries. That’s not at all the case. “Full time” officially means 35 hours, but men work more hours than women. That’s the first problem: We could be comparing men working 40 hours to women working 35. …

Economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn did that in a recent paper, “The Gender Pay Gap.”.”They first accounted for education and experience. That didn’t shift the gap very much, because women generally have at least as much and usually more education than men, and since the 1980s they have been gaining the experience. The fact that men are more likely to be in unions and have their salaries protected accounts for about 4 percent of the gap. The big differences are in occupation and industry. Women congregate in different professions than men do, and the largely male professions tend to be higher-paying. If you account for those differences, and then compare a woman and a man doing the same job, the pay gap narrows to 91 percent. So, you could accurately say in that Obama ad that, “women get paid 91 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as men.”

The point here is not that there is no wage inequality. But by focusing our outrage into a tidy, misleading statistic we’ve missed the actual challenges. It would in fact be much simpler if the problem were rank sexism and all you had to do was enlighten the nation’s bosses or throw the Equal Pay Act at them. But the 91 percent statistic suggests a much more complicated set of problems. Is it that women are choosing lower-paying professions or that our country values women’s professions less? And why do women work fewer hours? Is this all discrimination or, as economist Claudia Goldin likes to say, also a result of “rational choices” women make about how they want to conduct their lives.

Still, since Obama wants to make it an issue with this median application on wages, how does his own organization stack up? As those of us who have followed the demagoguery on this point know, the White House has its own pay gap, as McClatchy discovered:

ALL of it here:
McClatchy wonders: How does the Obama White House stack up on equal pay? « Hot Air

 

[DGS49]

The "77%" figure is just another foolish canard that Dems trot out to stroke their ignorant constituencies. No serious economist gives it any credence whatsoever. It's like "income inequality" and the bullshit studies that talk about "the people in the bottom quintile," ignoring the fact that the people in the bottom quintile are different every year, because a lot of them have moved up.

Democrats DEPEND on the stupidity of the electorate, and they are seldom disappointed.

 

[bodecea]

I have not heard ANY public outcry or discussions about women being mistreated in the workplace.

This has been an issue for a very long time....equal pay for equal work. It is better than it used to be, but it isn't completely fixed yet.

 

[bodecea]

I have not heard ANY public outcry or discussions about women being mistreated in the workplace.

When did Obama become PM of Australia?

So, you think this isn't a problem here in the U.S. too?

 

[eflatminor]

Sexism. Many men are threatened to have women who are their equals working for them.

Sexism trumps profit...THAT'S your explanation?

Wow, just wow. There are no words to describe just how ridiculous that sounds.

But hey, feel free to back up your assertion with even a shred of evidence, logic or reason. The floor is yours.

Actually, yes it does. That is yet another example how your perfect capitalism ideal is completely flawed. Government sometimes needs to enforce equality. Strange how that works, government enforcing capitalist fundamentals.

Still looking for that evidence to back up the claim. A modicum of it...anything. Once again, "because I say so" doesn't cut it.

A government for the people by the people. Is that what that means?

That's not what it means at all! It means the government is RESTRICTED from meddling in the people's business unless it's one of the enumerated powers or someone has violated the rights of others and due process has been served.

Good Christ man, government does not grant rights! Get that through your thick skull!

 

[Katzndogz]

Sexism. Many men are threatened to have women who are their equals working for them.

Sexism trumps profit...THAT'S your explanation?

Wow, just wow. There are no words to describe just how ridiculous that sounds.

But hey, feel free to back up your assertion with even a shred of evidence, logic or reason. The floor is yours.

Actually, yes it does. That is yet another example how your perfect capitalism ideal is completely flawed. Government sometimes needs to enforce equality. Strange how that works, government enforcing capitalist fundamentals. A government for the people by the people. Is that what that means?

Every time the government forces equality, a little bit more freedom is lost. Equality and freedom cannot coexist.

 

[bodecea]

When did Obama become PM of Australia?

Works the same here.

My ex makes less than her male counterparts at the same job....

1. She doesn't hold a degree
2. She doesn't travel
3. Due to (2) doesn't work the same long hours.

Looka.. you can't just say that because in some instances women earn less that there is discrimination. I can tell you as an employer, women typically can't/won't work the same hours/travel schedules as their male counterparts... for whatever reason, mostly child rearing issues... which frankly, isn't my problem.

You have to look at the overall picture.

Congrats to her....she beat the odds.

 

[bodecea]

Sexism trumps profit...THAT'S your explanation?

Wow, just wow. There are no words to describe just how ridiculous that sounds.

But hey, feel free to back up your assertion with even a shred of evidence, logic or reason. The floor is yours.

Actually, yes it does. That is yet another example how your perfect capitalism ideal is completely flawed. Government sometimes needs to enforce equality. Strange how that works, government enforcing capitalist fundamentals. A government for the people by the people. Is that what that means?

Every time the government forces equality, a little bit more freedom is lost. Equality and freedom cannot coexist.

Oh?

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

When did Obama become PM of Australia?

So, you think this isn't a problem here in the U.S. too?

No, I do not because it is not.

 

[eflatminor]

Equality and freedom cannot coexist.

Absolutely! We are born with an equal chance to success, or fail, in the eyes of the law. After that, it's up to the individual. That's the fundamental idea that allowed American to become the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the history of the world with the highest standard of living for ALL it's citizens.

Government can only attempt to make people equal in OUTCOME by taking from some and giving to others. THAT is where freedom dies.

Of course, freedom flourished in those countries in which everyone was equal, right? And it's not like the Soviet Union, with all it's equal citizens, resulted in everyone being equally poor...right???

 

[aplcr0331]

Young Women's Pay Exceeds Male Peers'

The earning power of young single women has surpassed that of their male peers in metropolitan areas around the U.S., a shift that is being driven by the growing ranks of women who attend college and move on to high-earning jobs.

In 2008, single, childless women between ages 22 and 30 were earning more than their male counterparts in most U.S. cities, with incomes that were 8% greater on average, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data released Wednesday by Reach Advisors, a consumer-research firm in Slingerlands, N.Y.

The trend was first identified several years ago in the country's biggest cities, but has broadened out to smaller locales and across more industries. Beyond major cities such as San Francisco and New York, the income imbalance is pronounced in blue-collar hubs and the fast-growing metro areas that have large immigrant populations.

The greatest disparity is in Atlanta, where young, childless women were paid 121% the level of their male counterparts, according to Reach Advisors.

 

[bodecea]

Young Women's Pay Exceeds Male Peers'

The earning power of young single women has surpassed that of their male peers in metropolitan areas around the U.S., a shift that is being driven by the growing ranks of women who attend college and move on to high-earning jobs.

In 2008, single, childless women between ages 22 and 30 were earning more than their male counterparts in most U.S. cities, with incomes that were 8% greater on average, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data released Wednesday by Reach Advisors, a consumer-research firm in Slingerlands, N.Y.

The trend was first identified several years ago in the country's biggest cities, but has broadened out to smaller locales and across more industries. Beyond major cities such as San Francisco and New York, the income imbalance is pronounced in blue-collar hubs and the fast-growing metro areas that have large immigrant populations.

The greatest disparity is in Atlanta, where young, childless women were paid 121% the level of their male counterparts, according to Reach Advisors.

Is that in general or in same jobs? Because part of the reason (which may fix pay inequality in and of itself) is that MORE women than men are getting college degrees now...and that usually equates to better paying jobs.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

After reading MOST of this thread I've seen no proof of any wide spread problems with this issue. Some graphs or funky photos do not equate to substantiated facts.

As I suspected this issue appears to be pretty bogus.

 

[bodecea]

After reading MOST of this thread I've seen no proof of any wide spread problems with this issue. Some graphs or funky photos do not equate to substantiated facts.

As I suspected this issue appears to be pretty bogus.

It isn't...but it is correcting itself.

 

[aplcr0331]

Young Women's Pay Exceeds Male Peers'

The earning power of young single women has surpassed that of their male peers in metropolitan areas around the U.S., a shift that is being driven by the growing ranks of women who attend college and move on to high-earning jobs.

In 2008, single, childless women between ages 22 and 30 were earning more than their male counterparts in most U.S. cities, with incomes that were 8% greater on average, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data released Wednesday by Reach Advisors, a consumer-research firm in Slingerlands, N.Y.

The trend was first identified several years ago in the country's biggest cities, but has broadened out to smaller locales and across more industries. Beyond major cities such as San Francisco and New York, the income imbalance is pronounced in blue-collar hubs and the fast-growing metro areas that have large immigrant populations.

The greatest disparity is in Atlanta, where young, childless women were paid 121% the level of their male counterparts, according to Reach Advisors.

Is that in general or in same jobs? Because part of the reason (which may fix pay inequality in and of itself) is that MORE women than men are getting college degrees now...and that usually equates to better paying jobs.

Absolutely. We must always compare inputs when we talk about outputs. Which is why that stupid graph that we see on the thread is so wrong. It does not take into account inputs.

When you factor in hours worked (men work more hours on average than women), types of jobs (men work more dangerous and thus higher paying jobs) along with many other factors the different between pay for man and woman is negligible.

But that kind of thing doesn't fire up the base as well.

If I was a woman I'd be pissed that people are insulting my intelligence and that they assume that I cannot accept the truth.

War on women is right nb it's a two front war.

 

[Dr Grump]

Women put their careers on hold mid career. Women also tend to go into lower paying fields than men. Men also tend to work harder once children are born, women less hard.
Now, once you correct for all those things, finding a woman who has never been married and never had kids and pursued a career path all the time, you find women are paid more than men.
This really is neither difficult nor unknown. I'd suggest reading up on it before blowing your mouth off and looking like an idiot.

So far all you have offered up is you own opinion with nothing solid to back it up.

Talk about looking like an idiot...

 

[Dr Grump]

Do you even work?

He owns his own business.

How does he treat his female employees?

Could we get a direct comment from them?

A friend of mine's brother owns his own business. He mows lawns. Just sayin'

 

[Meister]

I have not heard ANY public outcry or discussions about women being mistreated in the workplace.

There is the federal law called the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to insure this. I'm sure if it was a true issue and not a political game that the left is playing that this would be in the courts already.

 

[Little-Acorn]

WTF was Obama talking about with equal treatment & pay for women?

I have not heard ANY public outcry or discussions about women being mistreated in the workplace.

He's trying to prevent the Democrats' ginned-up "war on women", started by ex-Clinton flack George Stephanopolous, from fading away completely.

On Jan. 7, 2012 at the Presidential candidates' debate that night, Stephanopoulos carefully launched a “War on Women”, and then tried to pretend it was Republicans who were doing it. Mitt Romney was puzzled the the out-of-left-field questions, but played along gamely.

“Do you believe that states have the right to ban contraception?” Stephanopoulos asked Romney. Romney replied that was sort of a silly question, since no state wanted to ban contraception. Stephanopoulos kept pressing, trying to pretend that Republicans WERE doing it and approved of it, Romney in particular - a bizarre performance from a supposedly "unbiased" moderator in a debate. Even the audience started booing Stephanopolous as he repeated his insinuations over and over.

Ever since, other hard-left Democrats have been repeating Stephanopolous's twists and lies. Obama's citation of the supposedly "unequal" treatment he claims women are getting, is just more of the same.

Democrats have been losing hand over fist as Obamacare crashes and burns, questions keep coming about NSA surveillance, IRS misbehavior, and deaths in Benghazi. Apparently they feel that the only way out is to change the subject to a different set of lies, such as their faked "War on Women".

 

[The Rabbi]

Women put their careers on hold mid career. Women also tend to go into lower paying fields than men. Men also tend to work harder once children are born, women less hard.
Now, once you correct for all those things, finding a woman who has never been married and never had kids and pursued a career path all the time, you find women are paid more than men.
This really is neither difficult nor unknown. I'd suggest reading up on it before blowing your mouth off and looking like an idiot.

So far all you have offered up is you own opinion with nothing solid to back it up.

Talk about looking like an idiot...

It's not my opinion. It is fact.
And for you to call someone out for posting an unsupported opinion is hilarious.