Women income disparity: Discrimination or Supply/Demand?

Asked by Charles (4823

) April 19th, 2012

Supposedly, women make less than men. Some theories are it is because of discrimination, other theories are because of the choices women make, for example choosing lower paying college majors (art history) or careers (teaching).

Some people think that it can’t be discrimination because:

1) If women truly earned less, then employers would have an incentive to hire them because they are cheaper to hire and

2) Discrimination would be a slam dunk to prove since companies’ salary and hiring practices are under intense scrutiny by EEO watchdogs – the law suits would be off the charts.

gender discimination

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4 Answers

Nobody argues that a woman working at Burger King should make as much as the CEO of GE. It is equal pay for equal work that is being argued.

1) Look at racism but apply that to gender.

2) It is expensive to sue. Most people don’t bother. And the ones that do you never hear about.

jrpowell (40562

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“Supposedly”?

syz (35938

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“1) If women truly earned less, then employers would have an incentive to hire them because they are cheaper to hire and’

Derp derp.

Keep_on_running (6759

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You know what’s interesting? When the recession hit, women were fired less than men, leading to disproportionate amounts of women in the workplace. Yes, it was because it saves more money to fire a man than a woman for the exact same job.

Aethelflaed (13752

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