thanks

I'm certain it's illegal to pay women and minority workers less because it's classed as discriminatory behaviour.......

"It's illegal, therefore it doesn't exist". Great argument. I'm sure no one has ever broken the law before. The thing about the gender pay gap is that while the statistics support the notion that it exists as mentioned by David Strange, it's often impossible to prove on an individual case-by-case basis. First of all, people tend not to tell each other how much they make, and also, just because you as an individual are paid less than your coworker (assuming that you'd be able to find out this information in the first place) doesn't necessarily mean beyond a shadow of a doubt that you would be able to prove that that individual case is the result of discrimination (even if it is). But it would be ridiculous to conclude that this discrimination doesn't happen on a large scale basis throughout society, given the statistics. In many cases, the pay difference is the result of subconscious biases that those who determine the pay of a worker might not even be aware of themselves, in which case malicious intent doesn't apply. However, the lack of malicious intent DOES NOT mean a lack of harm.

*David Stranger. Sorry. Can we not edit our comments anymore?

Nowhere in any peer reviewed study does it say that the pay gap is significant when you look at how they got there, and yes islamic countries are extremely sexist, but I don't see what that has to do with first world countries, and schools for boys exist too. If a person of any race, gender, or religion wants more all they have to do is try and they will get similar results, on average in similar starting situations, as a person of any other group of people.

U have been the female paid less for doing more work. I was training the trainee and he was earning $3 an hour more than me, for the same job title. So yes, the wage gap can and does still exist.

If the wage gap doesn't exist, then why do women museum curators make 81 cents to every male curators' dollar? Isn't that a wage gap?

I honestly do not know how you still believe there is a wage gap after learning the facts. If you wanna talk about laws how about the law created in 1963 that made gender based pay illegal. If you the wage gap actually exists in a company then GO SUE THEM. And what does feminisation of the workplace have to do with it? Al it is is a trend where people try to hire more women? This has nothing to do with the wage gap and could actually be perceived as sexist ( I do not really care) because they are hiring more women than men simply because of sex. I have no idea about sexism in the career process because I am to young to start working at jobs that require more complex hiring processes (Which I know will probably be used against me to say "Oh you're to young to comment on this type of stuff") but I can say with utmost certainty that some of the smartest people I know and who get the highest grades are women so I don't understand how there is "Institutionalized sexism" them. And if there is sexism against anyone in schools it is against guys. Things that girls tend to like are nurtured much more from a young school age and things like action filled stories and books are usually discouraged instead of being nurtured and turned into a love for reading or a better imagination. Instead boys are given books that they hate which turns into a hatred for reading which will bring down all their subjects eventually.

the pay gap isn't a literal $/h difference. the averages for each gender are different because women- far more often than men- have to take time off work to care for children, and therefore may only have access to part time/casual employment while their male counterparts are working full time. women are being financially punished for fulfilling the destiny that society has forced upon them. and I haven't even mentioned superannuation...

hilarious

Women are less likely to argue for a higher salary or promotion in contrast to the majority of men.

As far as I've seen every single one of those studies still failed to take other known factors into account. Unless you can prove otherwise, it is still due to women's choice to work less fulltime, fewer hours, more time off, negotiate for raises less, different/lower positions etc and not due to "sexism because they are women". Want to fix this? Get more women to work more in the many hard, dangerous, expensively educated, inflexible, life-long jobs that are currently made up almost entirely of men. Or is it suddenly no longer necessary to have 50-50 representation when it's NOT about cushy, influential, well-paying jobs?

Yeah, currently on my 4th job in medical research. I 100% guarantee you women and men make the same amount in this field, and anecdotal evidence from associates at similar companies lead me to believe the same is true no matter where you look.

To add to this, women also work fewer hours of overtime (on average), take part time second jobs rather than extending hours at a first, pass up promotions in favor of time at home, or take extended leave/years off from careers. The end result is that a "full time" male and female employee of the same age even in the same profession have different experience. A man who works more hours, takes promotions, and has not taken an extended leave will likely earn significantly more than a woman who does not work overtime, does not take promotions, and has taken an extended leave from work. The US bureau of labor statistics cites all of these as causes of the gap in wages that is observed by dividing total salary of by number of workers of (gender) in (field). After controlling for these, their most recent report left approximately 2 cents of "gap"