Dr. Warren Farrell is the author of many books, including two award-winning international best-sellers, Why Men Are The Way They Are plus The Myth of Male Power. His most recent books are Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say, which was a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and Father and Child Reunion about how fathers can be successful at both work and home. His latest book, just published this year, Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap and What Women Can Do About It, helps both employers and employees understand what makes a company want to increase an employee’s pay. His books are published in over 50 countries, and in 10 languages.
Dr. Warren Farrell is available for expert testimony to help fathers stay equally involved in their children's lives after divorce.

CLICK HERE to contact Dr. Warren Farrell for information.

For more about Dr. Farrell or his books, see
www.WarrenFarrell.net (Why Men Earn More)
www.WarrenFarrell.biz (Father and Child Reunion)
www.WarrenFarrell.org
(The Myth of Male Power)
www.WarrenFarrell.info (Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say)
www.WarrenFarrell.us (Why Men Are The Way They Are)
www.WarrenFarrell.ws (The Liberated Man)

Farrell’s Research Challenges Labor Day Myth:
“Men Paid More for Same Work”
by
Warren Farrell, Ph.D.

New research throws doubt on one of the most long-held assumptions of Labor Day—that women’s labor is paid less than men’s even when it’s the same.

Dr. Warren Farrell’s Why Men Earn More, a multi-year analysis of previously unpublished U.S. Department of Labor Census data,purports to uncover, as its subtitle implies, The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap -- and What Women Can Do About It.

Actually, in the Census Data according to Farrell, although men make more than women for different work, women now make more than men for the same work. A claim like that calls for a few cross-examining questions...

Q: What is this “different work” that supposedly leads to women’s lower pay?

Farrell: Men and women make 25 different work-life choices. Each leads to men earning more money; and each leads to women having better lives.

Q: Women’s lead to better lives? What do you make of that?

Farrell: Once again, the women have outsmarted us! It’s great for my two daughters; and great for creating flexibility in who works and who cares for the children.

Q: Are you saying the road to high pay is a toll road?

Farrell: Yes, essentially, it is a road with at least 25 different tolls. The trick is discovering which tolls are worth it. For example, a traveling nurse gets paid about twice what a stationary nurse gets paid. For a single person, traveling may be a plus; for a parent, a negative.

Q: Why does it nevertheless still appear men earn more than women for the same work?

Farrell: Because in most fields men still do earn more for the same job title. For example, technically, male doctors earn more than female doctors. But male and female doctors behave very differently. The man is more likely to be the surgeon (vs. GP or psychiatrist), work in private practice (vs. HMOs), work hours that are longer and less predictable, for more years. It is only when everything is equal that the women earn the same or more. I used to teach at the School of Medicine at the University of California in San Diego. I saw my female students even in their first year expressing preference for shorter, more predictable hours, and a desire to avoid surgery.

Q: Wait. Aren’t male executives paid more than female executives?

Farrell: Comparing the earnings of male executives to female executives is also comparing apples and oranges. Women are 15 times more likely to become female executives prior to the age of 40. So the female executive has fewer years of experience. More important, the men are more frequently executives of larger national and international firms—firms with more personnel and revenues; the men are more likely responsible for bottom-line sales, marketing and finances, not human resources or pr. It’s apples and oranges.

Q: So if men and women make twenty-five decisions that lead to the pay gap, are these different decisions innate? And if they’re not innate, what are they about, and what’s the evidence?

Farrell: They are not innate. They are about the division of labor that occurs when a couple has children. Thus, women who have never been married and are without children earn 117% of their male counterparts.

Q: Women who have never been married and never had children earn more? Why the reversal?

Farrell: Men without family responsibilities make career decisions similar to women’s: they prioritize jobs in the arts and social sciences that pay less, etc.; conversely, these women’s decisions are more like men’s: jobs in math, science, engineering, sales; a willingness to travel more, etc. When the sexes’ work-life decisions are comparable, the women earn more. (The 117% figure is for men and women with equal education, equal hours worked and the same years of work experience.) To paraphrase a political aphorism, “It’s about the family, stupid.” If the pay gap were about discrimination against women, never-married women without children would not earn more than their male counterparts.

Q: Is there discrimination against women?

Farrell: Yes. And there is also discrimination against men. Against women: men are still the top executives, and men criticize each other and have sexual humor that gets repressed when women are around—which makes them uncomfortable. Against men: try being a man and getting a job as a dental hygienist, nursery school or first grade teacher, cocktail waiter, restaurant host at Denny’s, a housekeeper in any hotel, selling women’s or men’s apparel at Wal-Mart or Costco.

Q: Is there other evidence that points to family decisions being primary and discrimination against each sex being about equal?

Farrell: Lots. Women who own their own businesses earn only 49% of male business owners. That is, women make 80% of what men make when their bosses are usually men, but 49% when their bosses are themselves.

Q: Why?

Farrell: Different goals. When the Rochester Institute of Technology surveyed business owners, they discovered money was the primary motivator for only 29% of the women, vs. 76% of the men. Women wanted flexibility with family opportunities, freedom, control, no commute. Women have always run their own small business with no one to fire them—it was called the family.

Q: When we stop focusing our binoculars on discrimination do we discover opportunities for women?

Farrell: Myriad. For example, there are now 80 fields in which women earn more than men—fields such as financial analyst, speech-language pathologist, radiation therapist, library worker, biological technician, funeral service worker, motion picture projectionist.... Female engineers (who sell their company’s product) make 143% of their male counterparts; female statisticians, 135%. Go figure.


Q: So you’re saying a woman with binoculars focusing on discrimination misses opportunities--like knowing these 80 fields, or the 25 ways to higher pay? You said there is a myriad of opportunities the preoccupation with discrimination makes women miss. What are three others you discovered doing the research for Why Men Earn More?

Farrell: OK, here are three of them...

1. For women with fewer skills and less education, join the Marines or Air Force. Only two women in the War in Iraq has been killed the Marines and Air Force, and both offer opportunities that translate well into civilian life, such as training in administrative work, weather, computer fields and health services--which also happen to be the fields that keep one safe.

2. Pharmacists now earn more than doctors, have far more control over their lives, and do not experience the emotional taxation of being intimately involved with patients as they die.

3. People who work 44 hours per week make twice what people earn who work 34 hours per week. The extra hours, if well used, lead to disproportionately fast promotions, and job opportunities that would not otherwise be available.

Q: So this Labor Day is a cause for celebration.

Farrell: Yes. Especially for our daughters.

Q: Where can we find out more?

Farrell: See www.WarrenFarrell.com.

Q: A web site with a name you couldn’t forget, eh?

 

Dr. Warren Farrell is the author of many books, including two award-winning international best-sellers, Why Men Are The Way They Are plus The Myth of Male Power. His most recent books are Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say, which was a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and Father and Child Reunion about how fathers can be successful at both work and home. His latest book, just published this year, Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap and What Women Can Do About It, helps both employers and employees understand what makes a company want to increase an employee’s pay. His books are published in over 50 countries, and in 10 languages.
Dr. Warren Farrell is available for expert testimony to help fathers stay equally involved in their children's lives after divorce.
CLICK HERE to contact Dr. Warren Farrell for information.
www.WarrenFarrell.net (Why Men Earn More)
www.WarrenFarrell.biz (Father and Child Reunion)
www.WarrenFarrell.org (The Myth of Male Power)
www.WarrenFarrell.info (Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say)
www.WarrenFarrell.us (Why Men Are The Way They Are)
www.WarrenFarrell.ws (The Liberated Man)

Copyright 2005 Warren Farrell, Ph.D., all rights reserved