"Bob Musicant" wrote in message
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"Alsvid" wrote in message
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Bob Musicant wrote to John Macnab:
In the meantime, I'm wondering if you believe that there are actually
employers out there who are paying less to women than to men doing the
same job? I don't think that even the most vocal women's rights groups
are making that claim.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wom...+less+than+men

The "76 cents earned by women for every dollar earned by a man" refrain
is meaningless without controlling for relative experience and education.

Dear Mr. Musicant,

I concur that it should be essential to take into account such comparative
factors as education and work experience when attempting to make sense of
that cited statistic.

That statistic does nothing to refute the contention that women doing the
same work with the same level of experience/education are in fact paid the
same. Companies indeed used to have different wage scales for men and women.
Does that still exist? I haven't heard of any such cases.

You might have overlooked this possibility of institutional sex discrimination.

Could it be possible that every worker, both male and female, in a specific
occupation tends to be paid less because most workers in that occupation are
female and their male employers tend to place less value on "women's work"
(the "pink collar" jobs), whether done by men or women?

For a historical example, as I recall, when nearly all secretaries were men,
being a secretary was a relatively well-respected and well-paying occupation.
After women had become nearly all of the secretaries, that occupation became
relatively less respected and lower paying.

In my view, as long as men continue to hold nearly all of the power at the top
in the workplace, some discrimination against women probably will continue.

'Give a girl an education, and introduce her properly into the world, and
ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without farther expense
to anybody.'
--Jane Austen (Mansfield Park)

--Nick