Wendy Greuel's Wage Gap Gruel

Wendy Greuel (City Council Days)
Source: Jim Winstead

After serving as a city controller and running for mayor, Wendy Greuel should realize that voters expect an experienced politician, city official, and Congressional candidate such as herself to treat them with a modicum of respect.

Instead, she borrows a played out play from the "War on Women" card to suggest that women are getting short-changed by the glass ceiling. The amalgam of emotionalism, gender discrimination, and outright distortions has turned into a tasteless gruel of political cheap shots which no one is eating anymore.

Any economists, statistician, or reader with two eyes in his head and a working knowledge of mathematics can see through the misleading arguments that women are paid less as a matter of discrimination.

On the whole, if women were distinctly and specifically targeted to receive lower wages than men, then businesses would hire only women to begin with.

Still, if we add up as an aggregate whole all the wages that women make and average out the wage, then do the same with every wage earned by men, granted the average  would be greater.

This kind of argument provides a distorted view of the actual case.

Not so much a wage gap as a wisdom gap, one may argue, women tend to take into consideration a number of factors before seeking a different, higher-paying job, or a promotion.

While men will seek more money, even to the detriment of family, health, social life (or at least risk those interests to a greater extent in certain cases), women make decisions to raise a family, for example, and even in the more limited instances, where a woman goes on maternity leave yet returns to the work force, her wages are diminished for the year.

For anyone to argue that a wage gap unfair ensues as a result is not only mislead, but insulting to women as well as businesses.

CBS News exploded the "Gender Gap Myth"

Forbes Magazine did the same thing. Carrie Luka, the Direct of the Independent Women's Forum, wrote this piece.

Caroline Ghosn also exploded the "Gender Gap" gruel with further analysis, including the growing recognition among Millennial women who do not believe in the "equal pay" dogma trotted out by liberal politicians.

When comparing men and women with similar education and professional backgrounds and experience, though, the wages are comparable. The same is true for CEOs and other high performing professionals, too.

Furthermore, in professions like teaching, where rigid pay scales and promotional pay options determine annual salary, the pay is comparable between men and women.

In effect, equal pay for equal work already exists. What differs is the number of women who pursue certain careers in comparison to men.

Other arguments about "equal pay for equal work" will focus on certain states, like Wyoming, where the pretended wage gap is much wider than, say, Washington D.C.

A couple things to keep in mind: Wyoming's economy is heavily based on ranching and farm work, which men predominantly work in. In Washington D.C., there are more men and women engaged in different types of employment, whether services, lobbying, or legal work.

The issue is not about gender per se, but about education, choices, availability.

But if Ms. Greuel wants to wage war on income discrimination, she ought to call out President Obama and his White House staff, which actually have hired fewer women during his second term, and on the whole pay their female employees less than the male counterparts.
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So, how about that, Wendy? Instead of slamming "the Tea Party" for trying to prevent women from getting proper health care, when are you going to denounce the "wage slavery" of the Obama Administration? Or even LA Mayor Garcetti's? 

Of course, Greuel has played games with wage wars before, citing that if she were elected mayor, she would guarantee a $15 minimum wage. Talk about buying votes (and it didn't work, did it, Mayor Garcetti?)

Instead of the old, cold, sloppy porridge-gender gap arguments, the next Congressman (or woman) to represent the 33rd Congressional should discuss turning back the Democratic War on Women, including repeal of Obamacare, health care reforms which actually drive up access and bring down costs, as well as sensible reforms which salvage entitlement programs losing funds at an alarming rate -- and stop blaming the Tea Party for Washington D.C. woes.