Image 01 Image 03

Democratic campaign season built on a 100% lie

Democratic campaign season built on a 100% lie

Democrats are addicted to the 77% pay gap lie.

http://youtu.be/-swcpDpAr20

Democrats are going all in on the War on Women campaign theme once again, focused this time not on free contraception but on the claim that women make only 77% percent of what men make for comparable work.

It is the centerpiece of the 2014 electoral campaign.

Glenn Kessler, WaPo’s fact checker, noted that Obama’s State of the Union claim was not accurate:

“I ask this Congress to declare that women should earn a living equal to their efforts, and finally pass the Paycheck Fairness Act this year.”

There is clearly a wage gap, but differences in the life choices of men and women — such as women tending to leave the workforce when they have children — make it difficult to make simple comparisons.The administration’s back-up document for this statement asserted that “on average women generally make 23 cents on the dollar less than men.” But the White House is using a figure (annual wages, from the Census Bureau) that makes the disparity appear the greatest. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, for instance, shows that the gap is 19 cents when looking at weekly wages. The gap is even smaller when you look at hourly wages — it is 14 cents — but then not every wage earner is paid on an hourly basis, so that statistic excludes salaried workers.

In other words, since women in general work fewer hours than men in a year, the statistics used by the White House may be less reliable for examining the key focus of the legislation — wage discrimination. Weekly wages is more of an apples-to-apples comparison, but it does not include as many income categories.

Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis surveyed economic literature and concluded that “research suggests that the actual gender wage gap (when female workers are compared with male workers who have similar characteristics) is much lower than the raw wage gap.” They cited one survey, prepared for the Labor Department, which concluded that when such differences are accounted for, much of the hourly wage gap dwindled, to about 5 cents on the dollar.

Mark J. Perry and Andrew G. Biggs, writing in The Wall Street Journal, point out that once education, marital status and occupations are considered, the ‘gender wage gap’ all but disappears, The ’77 Cents on the Dollar’ Myth About Women’s Pay:

April 8 is “Equal Pay Day,” an annual event to raise awareness regarding the so-called gender wage gap. As President Obama said in the State of the Union address, women “still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns,” a claim echoed by the National Committee on Pay Equity, the American Association of University Women and other progressive groups.

The 23% gap implies that women work an extra 68 days to earn the same pay as a man. Mr. Obama advocates allowing women to sue for wage discrimination, with employers bearing the burden of proving they did not discriminate. But the numbers bandied about to make the claim of widespread discrimination are fundamentally misleading and economically illogical.

In its annual report, “Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2012,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that “In 2012, women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median usual weekly earnings of $691. On average in 2012, women made about 81% of the median earnings of male full-time wage and salary workers ($854).” Give or take a few percentage points, the BLS appears to support the president’s claim.

But every “full-time” worker, as the BLS notes, is not the same: Men were almost twice as likely as women to work more than 40 hours a week, and women almost twice as likely to work only 35 to 39 hours per week. Once that is taken into consideration, the pay gap begins to shrink. Women who worked a 40-hour week earned 88% of male earnings.

Then there is the issue of marriage and children. The BLS reports that single women who have never married earned 96% of men’s earnings in 2012.

Christina Hoff Summers has made similar points, No, Women Don’t Make Less Money Than Men:

President Obama repeated the spurious gender wage gap statistic in his State of the Union address. “Today,” he said, “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.”

What is wrong and embarrassing is the President of the United States reciting a massively discredited factoid. The 23-cent gender pay gap is simply the difference between the average earnings of all men and women working full-time. It does not account for differences in occupations, positions, education, job tenure, or hours worked per week. When all these relevant factors are taken into consideration, the wage gap narrows to about five cents. And no one knows if the five cents is a result of discrimination or some other subtle, hard-to-measure difference between male and female workers.

Even the NY Times acknowledged the obvious back in 2012:

Most economists believe the gap between women’s and men’s wages does not stem primarily from employers paying women less than men for the same job. It occurs mostly because men and women take different jobs and follow different career paths. Part of this difference may be a result of discrimination in hiring and promoting. Much, though, is a result of the constraints of motherhood.

And so did CBS Moneywatch back in 2011:

According to all the media headlines about a new White House report, there’s still a big pay gap between men and women in America. The report found that women earn 75 cents for every dollar men make. Sounds pretty conclusive, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. It’s misleading.

According to highly acclaimed career expert and best-selling author, Marty Nemko, “The data is clear that for the same work men and women are paid roughly the same. The media need to look beyond the claims of feminist organizations.”

On a radio talk show, Nemko clearly and forcefully debunked that ultimate myth – that women make less than men – by explaining why, when you compare apples to apples, it simply isn’t true. Even the White House report: Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being explains why. Simply put, men choose higher-paying jobs.

That Obama and Democrats continue to campaign on a 100% lie about the 77% pay gap tells you everything you need to know.

DONATE

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.

Comments

Excellent. The best meme possible for the donkeys to win.

(shhhh)

The entire existence of the Democratics is a lie.

Telling the truth to cover-up a lie doesn’t wash. Not even in Orwellian libspeak.

No, if they ever told the truth (outside inadvertent ‘slips of the tongue’), they ‘d never get elected.

If they were ever candid about their goals and objectives, their process and tactics, and more importantly the results of their policies….they’d be run out of town on a rail.

    JimMtnViewCaUSA in reply to Browndog. | April 8, 2014 at 12:17 pm

    “…. if they ever told the truth … they‘d never get elected.”

    True, and if they ever had to get campaign donations outside of gov’t subsidies and forced collections from union paychecks, etc, they’d wither.

    Which is why Scott Walker is such a threat. He is being successful in WI at turning down the spigot for public sector union “donations” to the Dem party.

Except, as soon as Stevenson was actually questioned about the statistic by McClatchy reporter Lindsay Wise, the White House adviser crumbled, admitting her earlier comments were inaccurate.

“If I said 77 cents was equal pay for equal work, then I completely misspoke,” Stevenson said. “So let me just apologize and say that I certainly wouldn’t have meant to say that.”

Oh, I’m sorry, I guess when Stevenson said “we see it when men and women are working side by side doing identical work” — that was an accident?

“Seventy-seven cents captures the annual earnings of full-time, full-year women divided by the annual earnings of full-time, full-year men,” Stevenson clarified. “There are a lot of things that go into that 77-cents figure, there are a lot of things that contribute and no one’s trying to say that it’s all about discrimination, but I don’t think there’s a better figure.”

No one’s trying to blame discrimination? Isn’t that what the entire Paycheck Fairness Act and Equal Pay Day are based on?

And while we’re at it, let’s not forget that the White House pays women less than men. But that’s okay, said White House press secretary Jay Carney, because they still pay “better than the national average.”

Apparently a little discrimination is OK in Obama’s White House.
—Wash. Examiner

And, see, there are LOTS of “gaps”, as Stevenson said, like the “gap” between deaths and injuries on the job between men and women.

Bogus as HELL…!!!

Apparently, Miss Piggy Landrieu is one of the MOST egregious “discriminators”.

http://freebeacon.com/politics/senate-dems-remain-on-front-lines-in-war-on-women/

I R A Darth Aggie | April 8, 2014 at 12:32 pm

Here’s how you can shut anyone up about the “77 cents on the dollar” claim:

1. for most businesses, the #1 cost is labor
2. if they could save 23% on labor, they’d be all in
3. women’s employment rate should be at the “full employment” mark

    Caught that one on the Adam & Drew Podcast.

    Yeah- so what they are implying is I can run out and hire a bunch of women to perform the same work for 20% less.

    Why the eff would I hire a man?

    Not sure WHY more aren’t skunking them back on this one.

Do they really think that propping up a 100% lie about wage discrimination is enough to distract the American public from the other 100% lie about keeping one’s health insurance?

It’s a trap to get the GOP and activists to waste airtime playing defensive on a phantom issue when Dems know they will be annihilated if Republicans STAY FOCUSED and on the offensive on the 5 million plus who have lost their insurance and the ambiguous number who signed up but are not enrolled.

    Browndog in reply to Aucturian. | April 8, 2014 at 1:27 pm

    Do they really think that propping up a 100% lie about wage discrimination is enough…

    You bet.

    Imagine if you will…

    …a recent college grad. Can’t get a good job, have to settle for a lower paying job. All the news you (and your Facebook friends) get is from The Daily Show and an occasional blurb from the Nightly News..

    So, when you hear you’re being screwed, and the democrats want to get you paid, but those Koch Bros. republicans won’t let them–what is your first thought?

    -Those rotten bastards!

    OR…

    – That doesn’t sound right. My college professors taught me to think critically. I know all evil corporatist want cheap labor, and that would mean women would replace men in the labor market.

The Dems rely heavily on the low-infos. Maybe they’ll wise up after Obamacare when they thought their healthcare was going to be free.

Liars and manipulators use numbers and data in a way that supports their distorted way of thinking. I wouldn’t trust any gov numbers since the entrenched gov worker is probably a big gov progressive and will support those policies. The census Bureau numbers are probably from the American Community Survey. I got one a number of years back and refused to supply any info. If I had to supply any info, I would have lied because it is none of the gov’s business and there’s no way to fact check the info anyway.

Women like me are the source of a big portion of that alleged wage gap. I have a doctorate, and good post-doc work. My husband has the same academic and post-doc credentials that I do. This year, I made very little. His pay puts us in the 2% bracket.

We have children, and I am the one who has done the dirty work of raising a family. If my husband prospers ar all in his career, I will NEVER make up for my lost time-in-grade.

If American families prosper, and if one person is generally capable of making a wage to support a family, and if most of the child-rearing responsibilities continue to be borne by women, a net pay gap should continue to exist, regardless of employer policies.

Henry Hawkins | April 8, 2014 at 2:06 pm

RE: Our war on women, bagged two today! Got ’em on the hood of my truck. Pics?

It’s not a “gender gap”. It’s a “women who have children versus others” gap. Because of affirmative action, in a number of fields, young women right out of school out-earn their male counterparts. Susan Pinker (Steven Pinker’s sister) wrote a book on why women with children make choices when they don’t “have to” to cut back on work hours. http://www.amazon.com/Sexual-Paradox-Women-Real-Gender/dp/0743284704

Of course they lie.

First, because the truth is not their ally, as Browndog and others note above.

Second, because the media will not expose their lies.

Third, because their target audience isn’t the sort of woman who hears a random statistic and researches it herself, finds the whole study on the internet and reads it to find out what it actually says. They are targeting the less-educated, lower-income women who are more likely to hear the statistic quoted, hear Republicans blamed, and assume it’s all true.

IOW, they are targeting this to the typical Democratic voter: not very well informed, but willing to don the robes of victimhood, especially for the prospect of some federal gravy being slopped in their direction.

☻ ☼ ☺

Why do Democrats lie?

1. Because they can.
2. Because they have to.
3. Because no one calls them on it.
4. Because their voters will swallow it.

Henry Hawkins | April 8, 2014 at 5:13 pm

The Democrats must have a team that does nothing all day but identify counter-intuitive facts and statistics that can be manipulated for propaganda purposes.

Henry Hawkins | April 8, 2014 at 6:12 pm

Were I a journalist, the first questions I’d ask Jeb Bush if he announced for 2016:

Is it an act of love to frontline illegal immigrants ahead of legal immigrants waiting in long bureacratic lines?

Do legal immigrant applicants following the laws of our country love their children less than the illegals who flaunt our laws?

canoworms27 | April 9, 2014 at 8:29 am

Considering that half of the country are women, it stands to reason that the democrats are just playing to the numbers…