Letter: Politicians pander on pay equity
Researchers have shown that company-level differences have become large enough to influence national productivity growth and overall wage inequality. The new study suggests they affect income mobility, too. Credit: iStock
I am dismayed when I see politicians pandering to women by trying to make gender pay equality a campaign issue. I have worked in human resources for 15 years, and I can say unequivocally, without exception, my company has never paid a man more than an equally qualified woman.
People are paid according to their value in the marketplace, nothing more and nothing less. To those who doubt what I say, let me pose a question: If we could hire a woman for less than an equally qualified man, why would we ever hire a man?
What's more, studies show that men who are over 6 feet tall earn more, on average, than shorter men. Shall we pass a law guaranteeing the rights of short men to earn as much as their taller brethren? Where will this all end?
If women earn less than men, perhaps it is because they lean toward lower-paying occupations, such as administrative assistant versus construction worker. Or perhaps they stay out of the workforce to raise a family -- a most admirable thing to do. When they return to the workforce, they may earn less than a man who never left, but this has nothing to do with gender.
Roger Gilmore, Westbury
