In the frenzied quasi-reporting of women’s issues during the Democratic and Republican conventions you might have heard vague mention of the pay disparity between men and women. Nationally, women make only about 70 percent of what men make. In a recent interview on KAXE, Business North reporter Beth Bily talks about the fact that women in northern Minnesota make even less than that. In some northern Minnesota counties, that figure drops to 60 or even 55 percent. There are reasons. If you have about eight minutes, listen to this interview.
We’ve got a lot of problems on the Iron Range, but this is one that must be addressed for the area to rise out of its historical economic malaise.
While this certainly looks like a problem on its face, I’d want to see exactly what and how this data was gathered before panicing. It is incredibly easy with studies like this one to manipulate the data to get the result that you want to. If the data is properly put together and not biased, there is certainly a problem that needs to be dealt with.
However, if you wanted to put together a study showing that men only make 70% of what women do, you could easily do so. You could even have plenty of evidence that sounded legitimate at face value. You just wouldn’t tell people about a lot of omissions.
I personally find it hard to believe an employer would pay more or less to an individual simply becaue of their gender.
Todd — Let me clarify.
The issue isn’t that women are specifically paid less for doing the same job. That would be illegal. (though there are many legal case examples of this kind of problem).
The reason the statistics show what they do is that the highest paying jobs are often held by men and the lowest paying jobs are held by women. That makes the issue cultural much more than anything else.