Equal Pay for Equal Work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Women are less likely to have a college degree and are much more likely to leave or downgrade their positions when they have children.

I think though, that this is changing? That nowadays more women are going to college, and getting degrees, than males?

[Anonymous]

I think you are right

[Anonymous]

I don't have exact data or a cite, but I recollect that for 10 or 20 years colleges have been more than 50% female.

It's also true for law schools, where men and women have a pretty huge pay differential when they go to the work world (much but not all of it due to choices).

[Anonymous]

What does the Fair Pay Act supported by Obama do? Does anyone know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would assume it would be to give housewives salaries (to close up the gap some) and make it possible for all women to go to college. Of course your tax dollars will fund all of this, but it's all good, because it is truly in the name of equality.

This response sounds like something on Freerepublic.com or one of those right-wing sites. I always thought the political discussions here were a little more elevated and intelligent than this.

Odd because so many of the discussions are about what the government should be doing for the people. Usually it isn't what we should be doing for each other. These are often one sided, closed minded "discussions" on here.

Women are less likely to have a college degree and are much more likely to leave or downgrade their positions when they have children. Like it or not as women we are usually the primary caregivers, and we are usually the ones who will sacrifice a career for our children. This accounts for a large part of the wage gap. I earn zero dollars for each dollar my husband makes. I help contribute to the lower earnings of women, and I don't feel guilty about it, and I have actually considered being a school lunch lady so I could have the same hours as my children when they go to school.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your point, but if you are an unpaid SAHM, why would your '$0' salary be averaged into the earnings of working women? In the context of equal pay, studies are talking about the pay differential between a man and woman who are doing the same job with comparable experience/skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had hoped so too. I am honestly looking for an answer. What is the political solution proposed to end this pay gap? I have gotten a lot of flyers from the Obama campaign and want to know what will be done.

Oddly there was an evaluation of this comparing Obama and McCain's senate staff (public records keep it accurate). McCain came off better in the side by side. Words are cheap, actions speak volumes.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but the staff pay comparison doesn't take into account seniority or position.

From this news blog:
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/09/mccain_rebuts_o.html

"But McCain's campaign cited Senate records to assert that McCain pays women better in his office than Obama does.

"Barack Obama says he's for equal pay for women, but women working in his Senate office earn an average of $9,000 less than men. By contrast, women in John McCain's Senate office actually earn an average of nearly $2,000 more than men. The American people understand that real leadership for the change we need is all about what you do, not just empty words," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said in a statement.

The study that McCain's campaign cites, however, notes that a major reason for the disparity is that McCain has more women in senior, higher-paid positions -- not that women are being paid less than men for the same job. "

[Anonymous]

So why does Obama not have senior women on his staff? Can he find no qualified senior staffers who are female? Or does he prefer senior staff to be male?

I find the 'major reason for the disparity' to be a bit intriguing.

[Anonymous]

It's not that Obama doesn't have senior women, it's that McCain's senior staff is dominated by women. From what I've read, Obama's staff is more equal than McCain's which is female dominated (2:1 women/men).

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=31832

So the question is why don't men want to work for McCain?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the question is why don't men want to work for McCain?

When it comes to running McCain (as in the campaign), McCain chooses men. When it comes to people he gets to order around (VP and Senate staff), he picks women. Conclusions?

[Anonymous]

This story is quite interesting. Back when the advertising on the side made the assertion that obama was underpaying his staff, I looked at the data for one period and discovered what people have mentioned -- that there are more women on McCain's senior staff. I can't stand McCain's policies but I think that does say something interesting about him.

On another note, however, the gap between the average of women's salaries vs. men's salaries seemed larger than it was in reality because there was a slew of underpaid male interns in McCain's office. But when I took the interns out of the average, women still on average made more than men in McCain's office (while in Obama's office men made more than women) but the gap was not as large.

What needs to be done is to compare salary based on title but since the offices had different titles for workers and were structured differently, it was hard to sort out.

At any rate, I think it says something positive about McCain (and negative about Obama) that he has so many senior women working for him.

Still voting against McCain though!

[Anonymous]

PP -- I meant underpaying his female staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This story is quite interesting. Back when the advertising on the side made the assertion that obama was underpaying his staff, I looked at the data for one period and discovered what people have mentioned -- that there are more women on McCain's senior staff. I can't stand McCain's policies but I think that does say something interesting about him.

On another note, however, the gap between the average of women's salaries vs. men's salaries seemed larger than it was in reality because there was a slew of underpaid male interns in McCain's office. But when I took the interns out of the average, women still on average made more than men in McCain's office (while in Obama's office men made more than women) but the gap was not as large.

What needs to be done is to compare salary based on title but since the offices had different titles for workers and were structured differently, it was hard to sort out.

At any rate, I think it says something positive about McCain (and negative about Obama) that he has so many senior women working for him.

Still voting against McCain though!

Well put. The Obama = all things goodness and light and McCain = all things dastardly and dark rhetoric gets old.

This isn't an issue that would sway my vote in and of itself, just as Obama's 'associations' are not a make or break issue either. We all have hot button issues, but I would hope we would weight the totality of the men's experiences and potential when making this decision - not all this noise.