Comments on: AAUW’s Fuzzy Math an Insult to Working Women http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2007/05/07/aauw%e2%80%99s-fuzzy-math-an-insult-to-working-women/ Conservative and Libertarian Intellectual Philosophy and Politics Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:00:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: sedonaman http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2007/05/07/aauw%e2%80%99s-fuzzy-math-an-insult-to-working-women/comment-page-1/#comment-51608 sedonaman Mon, 07 May 2007 17:56:05 +0000 http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2007/05/07/aauw%e2%80%99s-fuzzy-math-an-insult-to-working-women/#comment-51608 By lumping various jobs of a professions all into one category (like the medical profession example), the advocates’ argument reduces down to “equal pay for ‘comparable’ work,” not equal pay for equal work, as one is led to believe. Indeed, the report even admits this on page 6: “In part, pay equity is simply a matter of fairness. When women are paid less than men are for comparable work, women have fewer resources to support themselves and their families.” Who can argue that a nurse’s job is comparable to a doctor’s and that it’s “unfair” to pay them less? The only two physicians’ assistants I’ve encountered were both women and who were paid more than nurses because of the increased education requirement. How would they fit in to “comparable work”? Who is to decide what is comparable to what? Apparently not the free market, according to the advocates. The best question of all, however, is posed in the article: Why would an employer hire any men at all when there are equally qualified women willing do it for 69% of the pay? By lumping various jobs of a professions all into one category (like the medical profession example), the advocates’ argument reduces down to “equal pay for ‘comparable’ work,” not equal pay for equal work, as one is led to believe. Indeed, the report even admits this on page 6: “In part, pay equity is simply a matter of fairness. When women are paid less than men are for comparable work, women have fewer resources to support themselves and their families.”

Who can argue that a nurse’s job is comparable to a doctor’s and that it’s “unfair” to pay them less? The only two physicians’ assistants I’ve encountered were both women and who were paid more than nurses because of the increased education requirement. How would they fit in to “comparable work”? Who is to decide what is comparable to what? Apparently not the free market, according to the advocates.

The best question of all, however, is posed in the article: Why would an employer hire any men at all when there are equally qualified women willing do it for 69% of the pay?

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