I recently did some research on exactly this topic. What I discovered is that the pay gap for people doing the same/similar job with the same level of experien

I recently did some research on exactly this topic. What I discovered is that the pay gap for people doing the same/similar job with the same level of experience and working the same hours is fairly small if it exists at all. Different studies measure it as between 0 and 7 percent "unexplained" pay gap (ie, not a result of degree, experience, hours worked, or other legitimate differences.) And it's not like these were all right-wing studies; some were coming from left-wing women's labor organizations and still saying they couldn't detect a wage gap after controlling for the relevant factors. The one "counterexample" someone tried to post for me was about freshly hired women in medicine, who make less than freshly hired men in virtually every medical specialty -- but the study they cherry-picked data from actually discussed how the pay gap between men and women in the same specialty had widened recently, specifically because women were negotiating more non-salary perks (like family-friendly hours) in exchange for lower salary. The actual amount of proveable wage discrimination in the US is very small -- I was looking at labor department statistics, and the total for discrimination settlements was measured in millions (in an economy measured in trillions). This included both out of court settlements and court-mandated settlements. I don't deny that some wage discrimination exists. But the data suggests it's not nearly as widespread or systematic as commonly believed. (And IMO it's self-evident that it's not -- because if it was, the economic opportunity for companies paying women fairly would be staggering. They could get the cream of the crop of women for average male salaries.)