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Millennial women have seriously narrowed the wage gap with men
- khuey 13y agoHow much of this is that most millennial women have not yet had children (and have not temporarily or permanently exited the workforce)?
- vasilipupkin 13y agonot sure how you would compute a pay gap between those who are working and those who have exited the work force. Isn't it like dividing by NULL?
- bmelton 13y agoWoman A works January 1 to March 31, has baby, quits work. On her $100,000 salary, she only makes 3 months' worth, meaning she _earned_ ~$25k, while her male counterpart makes $100k. Woman B works January 1 to March 31, has baby, takes 6 weeks off paid, and another 8 weeks off unpaid, makes only $84k while her male counterpart makes $100k.
- discodave 13y agoOne obvious reason is that Millennial women (especially professionals) have not had babies yet. The effect of taking time of work for children is not immediate, it creates a pay gap for the rest of somebody's career. If we imagine somebody's pay over their career as an upward sloping line eg. year 1 40k year 2 42k year 3 44k etc... When a woman takes 6-24 months of work to have a kid or two then that pauses their pay increases for that time and they are 1-4k worse off than somebody who didn't take time off at all when they get back. Add to that that women do more of the school runs and other caring when they DO return to work...
- nightski 13y agoWho really sticks to a linear pay schedule like that their entire career though? Honestly you would have be rather unmotivated.
- trentmb 13y ago> Who really sticks to a linear pay schedule like that their entire career though? People with passions that don't pay well (or at all), so they keep a steady job and pursue said passion outside of work.
- pdog 13y agoIf your passions don't pay well, you're probably not making something people want.
- adamnemecek 13y agoThis is possibly the most misguided comment I've read on HN.
- nightski 13y agoWhat are some passions that people have, which other people greatly desire, that are not paid well? I am genuinely curious.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- adamnemecek 13y agoIf nothing else, he kind of slipped in the 'people desire'. Why is that a requirement for a passion? As in, why is the requirement that one should be making it for other people? E.g. what if you are really into scuba diving?
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- rayiner 13y agoYea, that's the major factor. Staying home to take care of babies not only holds up your pay scale, but takes you off the track for more competitive positions very quickly. Women find it very difficult to jump back in on their previous career trajectory when they do return. It's to be avoided at all costs if you're an ambitious women. Ideally, people having kids wouldn't cause the wage gap to grow. But the push for women to downshift is really brutal, and most of it comes from other women (mother in laws and sanctimommies).
- sliverstorm 13y agoIdeally, people having kids wouldn't cause the wage gap to grow. But the push for women to downshift is really brutal I'm not particularly inclined to believe that neglecting your kids for the sake of your career is the answer.
- azar1 13y agoYou can tell the same thing to the fathers, then.
- sliverstorm 13y agoI'm with you there. Although it does play out a tad differently, considering only one parent actually carries the child.
- EpicEng 13y agoDo you have children? The relationship between a mother and young child is different than that of the child's relationship with their father.
- rayiner 13y agoPeople have their priorities, but what's often missing from modern parenting is any semblance of cost benefit analysis. A key example is breastfeeding. The long-term medical benefits of breastfeeding, unless you're in the third world and lack access to clean water, are quite tenuous. But the practical benefit of bottle feeding is real: feeding can be totally delegated to the father. For my wife and I, this has been a huge boon to equitable division of child care between the two of us. I'm the nighttime parent, the "I'm hungry" parent, the "I need comfort" parent. My wife is the "roughhouse with the kid after work" parent. If I were totally dependent on my wife to pump, and if she had breastfed, I doubt I could have established that told with our daughter. Yet, my wife gets a lot of snide comments from other women in her mommy circles who have their kid strapped to themselves 24/7. Women are pressured with these parenting fads, but taking them on basically concedes to taking on the role of primary caregiver.
- ceol 13y agoWage gap, not total pay gap. The article is talking about what women make per hour versus men. This means that a woman starting off in her 20s, without a child, would (on average) earn 93 cents for every dollar a man makes.
- joelle 13y agoTrue - but that doesn't take into account that the starting line is not the same... But it's getting closer.
- calinet6 13y agoOther than the note that has already been made about the difference in the age women first have children, I don't think this is a huge surprise to most "millennials." In most circles, as well as in most pop culture, an ideal expectation of equality is the well-accepted default. Now an expectation of equality and the practice thereof are two very different things, but it seems like we're making progress, and I can only hope we continue to do so.
- ams6110 13y agoThe employment picture for millennials is supposedly bleak, from what I've heard. If a lot of men in this age bracket are now taking sub-optimal jobs as an alternative to being completely unemployed, that could also explain a narrowing in the gap. There's a lot more wage parity in hourly service-sector jobs.
- eecsninja 13y agoCheck out the absolute pay numbers in the Pew Research article: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/12/11/on-pay-gap-millennial-women-near-parity-for-now/ http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/12/11/on-pay-gap-millenn... While women's wages have dropped slightly in recent years, men's wages have dropped much more. The OP article is misleading, or uninteresting at best -- both men and women are worse off in terms of wages.
- hayksaakian 13y agoI think the OP relies on the notion that the overall drop affected people equally independent of gender. The question remains: are men uniquely worse off?
- tsotha 13y agoI don't think there's any question about that, actually. Women tend to cluster in government, academia, and health care, which have been the most resilient sectors in this recession.
- rcthompson 13y agoWell, I came to this article half expecting to read that the pay gap had narrowed because both sexes were equally unemployed, and I guess I wasn't too far off.
- tsotha 13y agoGreat, so it's time to get rid of affirmative action, right?
- excelsiores 13y agoRemember this next time you hear the "77 cents to the dollar" lament by young feminists in college with a degree in "women's studies". They are not likely to be disadvantaged, just more likely than men to want to have babies and/or a more flexible job when they turn 30+. Also, interestingly enough, white women have been typically been better off than black or Hispanic men as regards wage gap with respect to white men (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0882775.html http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0882775.html) -- something that is often conveniently swept under the carpet by white feminists.
- normloman 13y agoMost feminists I know don't hesitate to mention the wage gap between white people and black / hispanic people.
- excelsiores 13y agoGuess it's a matter of personal experience then (Note that I intended to refer to young feminists in college in the second paragraph as well). Most of the ones I know tend to be from a pretty decent-earning group themselves (white, upper middle class, college-educated) and almost never mention the race-based earning gap, but constantly mention the gender-based one.
- NoahTheDuke 13y agoIt sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder.
- overgard 13y agoSo what if he does? It's a classic feminist shaming tactic to try to make men look "angry" when they dare disagree. How about we don't do that and debate actual points like adults? You know, instead of the "tone" of things.
- Mikeb85 13y agoThis article has some possible explanations: http://theweek.com/article/index/249955/why-is-the-gender-wage-gap-stuck-3-theories http://theweek.com/article/index/249955/why-is-the-gender-wa...
- brokenparser 13y agoDoes not compute. Millennial "women" are 12 or 13.
- Mikeb85 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials "There are no precise dates when the generation starts and ends. Commentators use beginning birth years from the early 1980s to the early 2000s" Millenials are basically those 30 years old and under at the moment.
- brokenparser 13y agoThat makes no sense at all. Generation X/Y/Z, sure (except does it roll over after Z and would that be AA or just A?). But millennial? The name implies turn-of-the-millennium, not before as that would be a premillennial. Back in the day, there were reports of people trying to plan a "millennium baby" to be born in the first week of the year 2000 so it would make sense to call them millennials as they're not exactly babies any more.