Age injustice and the gender wage gap issue

Walter Williams | APRIL 21, 2014

"President Obama vows zero tolerance on gender wage gap," read one headline. Another read, "Women still earned 77 cents on men's dollar in 2012." It's presumed that big, greedy corporations are responsible for what is seen as wage injustice. Before discussing the "unjust" wage differences between men and women, let's acknowledge an even greater injustice -- which no one seems to care about -- age injustice.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers ages 16 to 24 earn only 54 cents on every dollar earned by workers 25 or older. This wage gap is 43 percent greater than the male/female gap. Our president, progressives, do-gooders, academics and union leaders show little interest in big, greedy corporations ripping off the nation's youth. You might say, "Whoa, Williams! There's a reason younger people earn less than older people. They don't have the skills or experience." My response would be -- if I shared the vision of the president, media elite and do-gooders: Just as there can be no justification for big, greedy corporations paying women less than they pay men, there's no justification for them to exploit the nation's youth......To Read More......

My Take – When you take a more than cursory look at the statistics we find the wage disparities are largely due to factors other than prejudices.  Prejudices that – according to them - can only be taken care of by placing all decisions about wages in the hands of lefty bureaucrats whose only business experience is regulating business.

 As you read this article please try and remember one of the founding members of the Club For the Galacticly Stupid - Ohio Representative Mary Rose Oakar, and her “Comparable Worth” scheme back in the 70’s.  Comparable Worth was a loony left scheme to create a government agency to make sure women were paid what they thought they should be worth versus what the business community thought they should be paid. 

First the lefties forced companies to hire women to high paying jobs, such as construction.  But to their dismay women in general didn’t want those jobs.  There’s a reason those jobs are high paid – they’re dangerous and hard work requiring muscle mass most women don’t have.  So in order to “fix” that Mary Rose decided to push legislation that would give the government the authority to decide what women would be paid in order to make women’s wages comparable to these jobs irrespective of what jobs they were actually doing.  Even the Democrats thought it was a ‘loony toon’ idea. 

They wouldn’t today! Oh, as a side note:  After Mary Rose was indicted she lost her seat in the House, but Oakar’s seat was eventually taken up by Dennis Kucinich – the one time spiritual leader for the Club For the Galacticly Stupid.  Fortunately they’re both quietly living their lives out of the public’s eye....quietly.....and off the public’s payroll.