Why Women Make Less Part 2

After explaining the insanity of a CEO to not hire a woman if she can be just as productive as the man and do it for less pay I decided to investigate whether women really do make less than men. I have found that to be true. However are there economic reasons? Or are the mainstream media types, the intelligentsia, and politicians right to blame discrimination due to sexism?

Today lets look at some facts that back up the reasons women make less than men.

1.) Occupational Differences: Men work jobs that women do not work either because of physical inability or the unwillingness to participate. Some jobs are predominantly done by males. Many employers will choose not to hire those few women who are capable or willing to work that kind of labor because it could cause a distraction to the primary working male. Employers do not want to deal with this especially if it is single males working there. This has nothing to do with sexism or discrimination. This means although a female might be just as good at a job, if the distraction affects overall production by the workforce, the employer might choose to hire a male over the female. This has nothing to do with discrimination based on sexism. The same can be said in female dominated employment places as well.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women have been 74 percent of the "clerical and kindred workers" while women are less than 5 percent of "transport equipment operatives." In other words they are far more likely to be behind a desk than behind the steering wheel of an eighteen-wheel truck. Women are less than 4% of construction workers, less than 2 percent of roofers and less than 1 percent of mechanics and technicians who serve heavy vehicles and mobile equipment. There are economic implications for men working heavy physical work as well as hazardous work which requires physical work. Keep in mind, 54 percent of the labor force are men, while they are also 92 percent of the job-related deaths. Risks require more pay.

2.) Continuity of Employment: Facts make it appear that women will avoid occupations requiring more physical strength but they also make career choices influenced by the likelihood they will soon or at some point become mothers. Since motherhood requires a period of withdrawal from the full-time work outside the home, the cost of that withdrawal is a factor in occupation choices. When withdrawal from the workforce means a loss of seniority, and reduces the chances of being promoted, such an occupation imposes costs on women that are not likely to be imposed on a man. Even when men and women are the same age and have the "same work experience" in number of years, that employment being interrupted by domestic responsibilities of women such as birth giving, in reality means they have much less experience than the male. Even when women have not given birth or are not mothers, the prospect of that happening in the future has to be taken into account by the boss or CEO of a company that plan on promoting someone to a higher position. Men do not have to deal with this disadvantage. This is especially relevant to a high paying position at corporate that would mean much higher "leave" pay. Would you like to pay a high ranking corporate executive thousands and maybe millions of dollars if there was a good chance that she will be out for weeks due to the natural responsibilities of a woman in society? What if that pregnancy took place at a time when top decisions need to be made for a company or corporation?

This also affects occupations today in which skill requirements are changing rapidly. Jobs that deal with computer technology such as computer engineers and programmers. What about accountants and other positions that require constant changes in tax codes, etc. It has been estimated that a physicist loses half the value of his or her knowledge in that field in four years. Whereas a professor or teacher of English would take more than 25 years. This is why more women become teachers than physicist. Women are thus more likely to work in fields such as teachers or librarians rather than as computer engineers or tax accountants. Even with the proportion of women receiving Ph.D.s rose dramatically since the 1970s, male-female differences in fields of specialization remain large. As of 2005, according to Thomas Sowell and the University of Chicago, women receive 60 percent of the doctorates in education but less than 20 percent of the doctorates in engineering.

In the next post I will discuss irregular work, domestic responsibilities and compare some statistics. We will also see that while as a whole women make less than men, when you break the groups into characteristics of job skills and compare singles who have never been married, you will see that the gap closes dramatically and might be surprised with the numbers.