We hear the statement that women make less than men in the American workplace. The figure that gets tossed around is .77 per every dollar a man makes. It turns out that fact has a lot of grey area to it. Like all data, there are important variables that shape this result. The gender pay gap is also influenced by what women look for in a job, how we prioritize our lives, how we value money, our education level, the fields of work we gravitate towards, our roles within a family structure, our ability to bargain for pay increases, our fears of being judged harshly if we make stronger demands for higher pay, and the list goes on and on.
A recent Freakanomics Radio Podcast spoke to experts on the subject and they shed some light on just how gender economics works and importance of looking at the history of women working in America as well as behavioral dynamics that feed into this complex issue.
There is no one smoking gun. Think of this issue more like a low lying fog that is dense and nearly impossible to get through with ease. If you are interested in the understanding the truth behind the gender pay gap I highly recommended streaming this episode.
Stream the story here.
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