The Gender Wage Gap is REAL

Now that Obama has put out an ad on the gender wage gap, the usual roster of impregnably self-satisfied misogynists has been crawling out of the woodwork to bat for the ludicrous idea that the wage gap is like, totally OK, because men deserve higher pay. Evidently the truth just has to be repeated ad nauseum by as many people as possible, so here we go again:

Some common myths:

Sure, there’s a wage gap, but women take off from work to take care of their children, so what can I tell you?

This is true some of the time. SOME of the time. Often, what actually happens is that employers ask women if they are married and/or have children, and assume that if the answer is yes in either instance, that the women won’t be good employees (you didn’t realize it was legal to ask that, did you? It is, in most states). They are then less likely to be hired except by jobs that do allow for time off, which tend to be shitty-paying jobs. Or, if they are hired, they are paid less.

Men just work harder! And they travel for their companies! (for a recent example of this line of “thought”: Bloggernews)

Sigh. See above. You don’t have the opportunity to travel when your job is, say, being a tanning salon receptionist, and you can’t travel for a company that won’t hire you because they assume that, as a chick, you must be yearning to pop out children and quit your job in a few years.

There couldn’t possibly be real discrimination! C’mon!

Wal-mart, any one? Lilly Ledbetter?

Why didn’t the Fair Pay Act get passed?