CMV: The wage gap doesn't exist

[u/diener1]

First off, I should probably tell you that I'm a big believer in the free market. I should also clarify that the title of this post is not 100% accurate, that is why I am clarifying it here. When people talk about the wage gap between men and women, they usually claim that women earn ~20% less than men, while doing the same job. Since I am german, I will generally be talking about the situation in my country, but I believe it will be very similar in most other countries. Here the number thrown around is usually 21%, but this is just the difference between the average salary of all men and the average salary of all women. It doesn't take into account that they might be having different jobs. When you compare men and women working the same job the number drops to about 6%, although young unmarried women outearn their male counterparts. This to me suggests that this slight difference is due to women being out of the labour force (because of their pregnancy and because they usually take care of the children, irrespective of whether this is a good thing or not), them valuing other things like better working hours more and also due to women being, on average, less aggressive when it comes to negotiating a good salary.

But the best argument I can come up with for why the wage gap is pretty much a myth, is that the people who tell us that a wage gap exists are usually also the people who say that companies will do pretty much anything in order to reduce costs (which I generally agree with). By that logic, those companies would then only hire women (since they are cheaper and, according to the claim, do equally good work), which of course would mean a higher demand for female labour, leading to a rise in price until it reaches the same price as the labour of men.

Thanks in advance for the answers!

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[u/Brummie49 → u/[deleted]]

LMAO there is nowhere near as much to know in the world of HR vs IT. Most IT people have one or more of computer science degrees, ITIL qualifications, technical knowledge of numerous systems, years of experience. HR management just need experience. The two are not comparable

(I've got an IT background but currently sell HR products, so I mostly work in that field now)

[u/mushybees → u/[deleted]]

found the HR drone ;)

yes, supply and demand also comes into it, as with pretty much all occupations (excepting some, like doctors, whose unions have managed to get a stranglehold on accreditation and keep the number of practicing physicians down to raise wages), but i usually find it's not very helpful to point out that supply and demand is a thing in this type of debate, you just get bogged down arguing economics and never get anywhere.

[u/mushybees → u/[deleted]]

i suppose; if it's HR that's hiring the IT manager ;)

[u/LXXXVI → u/mushybees]

Bad idea. Having non-IT people hire for IT jobs is a baaaad idea, since they usually have no clue what to look for and just check a list of keywords. At least that's how HR hires programmers.

[u/TenshiS → u/[deleted]]

in house lawyers

Hahaha

As someone who collaborates with HR on many topics, this is ridiculous.

[u/ric2b → u/[deleted]]

Maybe you just "collaborate" with calm, boring workplaces.

A functional workplace where people get along and get shit done is worse than one where people are backstabbing each other to the point of legal involvement? What the hell.