Today is Equal Pay Day, a fabricated holiday that recognizes the gender pay gap and aims to convince women they are perpetual victims of gender-based discrimination in the working world.

Equal Pay Day (EPD) symbolizes how far into the year women must work to match men’s earnings from the year prior.

EPD is based on the faulty pay gap statistic. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women’s earnings were 83.6% of men’s in 2023. In other words, women earn about 84 cents on the dollar men earn.

However, this pay gap statistic is a raw average of men’s and women’s work. Many factors that impact pay—such as hours worked, education, seniority, education, field, etc.—are not considered. When controlled for these factors, the pay gap all but disappears.

Before giving your male co-worker the side eye for taking that extra 16 cents, here’s the truth:

  1. Men work more than women. Some 72% of men work full-time compared to 67% of women. More women work part-time. Each day, men work 8.3 hours on average compared to 8 hours.
  2. Women are attracted to lower-paying majors and career fields. Women predominantly major in fields that lead them into lower-paid occupations, such as the humanities, education, and social sciences. They are underrepresented in higher-paying fields but overrepresented in occupations that carry lower pay. The largest shares of women include childcare workers, preschool teachers, administrative assistants, and medical and dental assistants.
  3. Men dominate dangerous jobs. Women accounted for just 8.5% of all work-related fatalities in the U.S. In two of the three most fatal jobs (logging and roofing), women comprised less than 10% of those workforces (9% and 4.1%, respectively).

Motherhood is an overarching motivation that explains many of the decisions women make throughout their careers that impact their pay.

As I explained today in Townhall,

There’s virtually no pay gap for young workers. Single, childless women outearn their male counterparts. The wage gap begins to widen around age 25, likely due to choices about family roles.

 

Women disproportionately choose occupations and career tracks that are less demanding or offer more flexibility. In a 2017 New York Federal Reserve report, economists found that, on average, women are more willing to pursue jobs with greater work flexibility and job stability. Conversely, men are more willing to chase higher earnings growth. Furthermore, they concluded that preferences in college majors and job choices account for an astonishing 25% of the gender wage gap.

Women consider non-financial benefits when choosing jobs, career tracks, schedules, and even educations. Career satisfaction, enjoyment, alignment with interests, community service, and working conditions may be more important than money. 

Consequently, even among higher-paying careers, such as medical doctors, female professionals are attracted to specialties that offer more flexibility. 

Bottom Line

Let’s celebrate progress instead of faux victimization today. 

A dynamic economy that generates flexible opportunities gives more women choices in how to spend their time generating income. We don’t need legislation to outlaw gender pay discrimination; it is already illegal. We need policies that protect and expand workplace opportunities that fit the unique needs of American women.