IWF Busts Wage Gap Myth

For years IWF has been combatting myths about women’s economic opportunities. One of the most persistent has been the claim that women earn only 76 cents on the male dollar. But, as the work of IWF’s Women’s Economic Project and its publications such as Women’s Figures reveal, this is a deliberately misleading claim that fails to account for a number of commonsense facts about women’s workplace experiences. Women actually earn 98 cents on the dollar when factors such as age, education, and experience are taken into account.

On April 3rd, the IWF stole the spotlight again at a press conference on Capitol Hill. Immediately before our event, the National Committee on Pay Equity — the group whose mission is to propagate the myth of the wage gap-held a press conference of their own. The IWF struck back and countered claims of widespread discrimination with the facts.

On April 3rd, the IWF stole the spotlight again at a press conference on Capitol Hill. Immediately before our event, the National Committee on Pay Equity — the group whose mission is to propagate the myth of the wage gap-held a press conference of their own. The IWF struck back and countered claims of widespread discrimination with the facts.

Thanks to the IWF, the feminists’ annual Equal Pay Day stunt did not go unchallenged. With numerous media mentions and appearances, the IWF can claim a major victory in changing the terms of the debate about the wage gap.

On April 3rd, the IWF stole the spotlight again at a press conference on Capitol Hill. Immediately before our event, the National Committee on Pay Equity — the group whose mission is to propagate the myth of the wage gap-held a press conference of their own. The IWF struck back and countered claims of widespread discrimination with the facts.

Thanks to the IWF, the feminists’ annual Equal Pay Day stunt did not go unchallenged. With numerous media mentions and appearances, the IWF can claim a major victory in changing the terms of the debate about the wage gap.

On April 3rd, the IWF stole the spotlight again at a press conference on Capitol Hill. Immediately before our event, the National Committee on Pay Equity — the group whose mission is to propagate the myth of the wage gap-held a press conference of their own. The IWF struck back and countered claims of widespread discrimination with the facts.

Thanks to the IWF, the feminists’ annual Equal Pay Day stunt did not go unchallenged. With numerous media mentions and appearances, the IWF can claim a major victory in changing the terms of the debate about the wage gap.

Nancy Pfotenhauer

IWF President and CEO

The IWF celebrates the progress women have made economically, academically, and personally in the recent past. While some might choose to deny or belittle this progress, we believe that any unbiased assessment would show that women are holding more and better jobs, receiving a greater number of college and graduate degrees, starting more businesses, making more money, and competently choosing the trade-offs they feel best fit their families.

While these statistics are worth celebrating, the real news is that our future looks even brighter. We have an incredible amount of female talent in the academic pipeline right now. College enrollment throughout the United States is well over 50% female, and over 60% in liberal arts universities. Women are a majority in some professional schools, and, indeed, are expected to be half or more of the students entering law school this coming Fall.

But one challenge awaiting these young women is the same challenge faced by working women today: the balance between work and family. We want as much flexibility as possible to excel both at home and in our profession. We want the option to telecommute. We want comp time and flex time. We want the ability to freely contract our services with our employers in a way that suits our families’ needs, and we don’t think highly prescriptive, government-mandated, cookie-cutter solutions work for us.

We do believe in vigorous enforcement of the 1963 Equal Pay Act to combat individual incidents of injustice. But so long as women are making employment decisions and trade-offs based on factors other than salary alone, it makes no sense to assume that wholesale discrimination is occurring as alleged by the promoters of the wage gap myth.

We at the Independent Women’s Forum believe women fare best when they have a wide range of economic opportunities and choices available to them, and the working woman’s best friend is a good economy. When jobs and capital are plentiful, a woman can choose the job and working conditions she wants, or even start a business of her own. And women’s extraordinary progress and accomplishments in recent decades are proof that just as women work, freedom and opportunity work as well.

Karen Czarnecki Miller

American Legislative Exchange Council

As an organization of state legislators, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) believes in equal pay for the same work, the law of the land for over 35 years. Men and women who perform the same job and have the same credentials are entitled to the same pay. But we adamantly reject the radical and archaic proposal known as comparable worth. Whether you hear it called comparable worth or paycheck fairness, this proposal says that men and women should receive the same pay for different jobs.

Many states are facing this issue despite the fact that past attempts at implementation have failed so miserably. In fact, the two states operating under comparable worth are finding that it does not achieve the goals they thought it would. A 15-year study examining Australia’s comparable worth program found that it did virtually nothing to improve women’s wages, which was the intention of the program at the beginning.

We should be looking to free markets and employers to determine the value of particular jobs. Politicizing pay practices is not an appropriate action. Comparable worth is also a dangerous proposal because it increases litigation costs. People can sue employers for shortchanging them even if they are not as qualified as someone they compare themselves to. Finally, comparable worth violates payroll confidentiality laws and opens our markets up to even more litigation.
 
Comparable worth by any name is a highly subjective formulation that allows government bureaucrats to determine what we’re worth.

Enforcing the federal equal pay act is the only way to guarantee that men and women are paid fairly and honestly.

Terry Neese

Business owner & former president of the National Association of Women Business Owners

As a woman who is a business owner, daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother, it is my opinion that every person deserves and should be paid what they are worth for the work they do. The employees at Terry Neese Personnel Services in Oklahoma City, and the temporaries we employ throughout the state, are getting more than equal pay. That’s because I work hard to make sure my employees’ needs are met. Oftentimes, these employees are more concerned with time than they are with money, a situation that I think faces us all.

My employees want time off to care for their children, to care for their parents, or sometimes, just a day off to do something nice for themselves. Women business owners understand this issue all too well because we are running our companies, employing people, taking care of our families, volunteering in the community, and even getting involved in legislative activities. We all want the flexibility to provide our employees with comp time, the flexibility of job sharing, and even the flexibility to help them go out and start their own businesses.

Women are leaving corporate America in record numbers to start their own businesses, and many are staying home to run a business while they care for their family. According to the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, as of 1999, there are 9.1 million women business owners in America today. These businesses employ 27.5 million people, and generate $3.6 trillion in annual revenues.

The question to be asked is this: Do we want the federal government to place new and onerous demands on all these growing companies? Maybe special interest groups and others who believe in comparable worth should talk to some real women business owners who are living in the real world. We’ll be happy to provide them with some solutions and concrete steps to make sure all employees make what they are worth.

One thing we could certainly tell these advocates is that when the heavy hand of the federal government involves itself in micro-managing the personnel functions of small businesses and growing companies, these enterprises will operate much less effectively, which hurts the opportunities for their employees.

Federal intervention like pay mandate proposals just make it more likely that everyone will get paid less than they are worth, especially women and minorities who have put everything on the line to go out and start their own businesses.

Elizabeth Robbins

Society for Human Resource Management

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the world’s largest membership organization dedicated to human resources, or HR, management. Our membership includes the HR staffs in various-sized entities from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, with representatives in virtually every industry. It is the HR professional who must ensure that employers are in compliance with workplace civil rights laws and regulations.

SHRM supports equal pay for equal work-period. Compensation programs should be designed to ensure the fair treatment of all employees. It should be determined by the market and employer needs, not by the dictates of government or special interest groups. Because of the complexity of administering, the difficulty of enforcing, and the in-efficiency of regulating private sector compensation practices, SHRM strongly opposes any efforts to legislate or regulate comparable worth.

Proponents of comparable worth have labeled this issue the “equal pay issue.” However, equal pay for equal work is not what they are advocating. Comparable worth does not compare equal pay for like jobs. Instead, different jobs are compared to each other in light of their value to the employer. Such a system compares apples to oranges and it is not equal pay for equal work.

A significant concern for the HR professional is the actual implementation of a comparable worth pay system. Determining the employer’s wages for work is a very complex process and takes into account a number of factors, including skill, education, experience, and market forces. The complexity of a comparable worth system has already been demonstrated at the state level. In the 1970s and ’80s, 23 states conducted comparable worth job evaluation studies. All but two abandoned their implementation efforts due to the fact that the evaluation teams could not even agree on the myriad job classifications necessary for the scheme to work.

I’m sure debate will continue to exist over whether or not there’s a wage gap in the United States and the need for government intervention in the form of comparable worth. But it is unrealistic to think that the federal government can successfully implement a comparable worth system if almost half the states have already found that it doesn’t work.