5 Reasons Women Make Less Money Than Men

Mythbusting the myth of the gender wage gap.

Sources:

Join Cristen to get down to the business of being a woman and all the Stuff Mom Never Told You about bodies, boys and the female brain.

[griffinholeman]

The wage gap is a crock of shit! If I could employ women and pay them 75% of what I pay men, don't you think I would have an office full of women? How do you really honestly think that a teacher that is male is getting paid more than a teacher that is female? How would they do this? Do you think that they just *boop boop beep* record that she's a woman in their databases and purposely pay her less? Seriously? Is that what goes on in a woman's mind? I'm fascinated.

[emmadestruction]

I live in Australia, where Maternity leave is compulsory, paid by the employer. When I was 23, single and unemployed, with a Bachelors degree and four Cert IV qualifications, an employment agency told me I was unlikely to get a job because someone "doesn't want to pay maternity leave to someone and I'm a prime candidate for that." Literally could not get work because I have a uterus.

[LifeAmy]

It's always hilarious to see men getting defensive when these wage gap/gender inequality issues pop up. When you think about it, how would you know when you're not the one being discriminated against? 

[scoldingcoder]

Here's the thing...paying someone less based on gender has been illegal since the 1960's in the US...so if a woman can show that she and a male coworker working in the same position, working the same amount of hours and accounts for whatever other variables she could think of...she can sue the organization of employment. As for how to solve the 'wage gap', it is very simple...women have to want to work in higher paying fields, work more hours and if you want to consider the business world too...take more risks
Women have to want to do these things....nobody can force anyone to make the choices that lead to a bigger pay check

[suburiboy]

You should have defined "gender wage gap."  it seems to me that a real gender pay gap would be "getting paid less for the same work."  If that is the case, then the "Part-time", "Child Care", and "lower paying jobs" parts don't explain anything about a pay gap in that sense.  It may explain why "women tend to have less take home pay", so if that is what we mean by "wage gap", then you are spot on.


To be clear, I'm not refuting the existance of a gender wage gap.  It exists and it is real.  The Video is just confusing.

[Stelartom]

You know Bill Burr explained the wage gap quite well. "Women get paid less because on the off chance we are on a boat and its sinking, guess who gets to leave on the lifeboats, and who gets to stay on the boat. That privilege has a 25% surcharge"

[sosukemickey]

My mother makes the same as a man with same

[koczipt]

Before women could work, being a hairdresser (i don't know if this is the correct term, my english isn't that good) was a "man's job" and now, with time, it became a "women's job", there are jobs that are "for man" and jobs that are "for women" but if man and women show what they're worth at their workplace being a woman's or man's job, with time, this gap and this sexism may become smaller or even disappear...i think, but what do i know xD

[cesarflores]

I personally think that men work longer and more risky jobs and they work harder. If I were to my compare my dad and uncles to my aunts.The men's do harder work. Every once in a while a hear my aunt complaining and saying she NEEDS vacation when her job is way easier than my dads.

[hilaskiii]

If I owned a business I would just hire women. Hell less pay for the same work. I would be rich! How has no business caught onto this?

[btdtpro]

Cristen, I'm a big fan of your videos. I'm also a strong believer in equipping men and women to be successful. I'm a little disappointed how you kind of glossed over "#2 Negotiation", saying "Ladies if you want the money, sometimes you gotta fight for it. (jump-cut) The invisible forces of sexism and gender discrimination". I feel this sends the message that negotiating for higher pay is fighting against sexism and gender discrimination, when from what the Forbes article you cited states, both genders need to negotiate, but the study showed men do it far more than women and thus receive the reward of negotiation, higher pay. P.s. The Forbes article is full of great information, I'd love to see you do an episode of Stuff Mom Never Told You: About Negotiation.

[AndyOjoks]

I am for equal pay for equal work but people sometimes do not factor in the job description. most female models make more than male models depending on the agency and their contracts, most male actors make more than female actors depending on their roles and contracts. but in a banking job, a man and a woman doing the same job should earn the same amount at the end of the year.

[IchbinX]

I wonder what it's like to be able to cry false victimhood every 5 secs, and have the world come running to my aid. Hmm, I wouldn't know, I'm a man.

[Starving_Phoenix]

Cristen, you are a perfect human being. I'm honestly left in aw you manage to tackle controversial topics like this every week and not let the backlash I'm sure you receive get to you. You're truly an inspiration and I'm so grateful to you. You're awesome.

[mooncrown]

Also: if it is the case that women choose lower-paying jobs, then your reaction should be to take a long hard look at why exactly that is.

1) Jobs that are considered a female domain usually pay lower (yes, THAT is actually the direction of the causation here). Teachers used to earn much more compared to other professions, until someone decided that women would be naturally good at that job (because of course all women are great with children, as we all know). And poof! Down went the salaries.

2) Women are conditioned into thinking they can do certain things and not others. If a lot of women don't go for that manager job, it's got a lot to do with how they were raised and what society tells them daily. If you got someone whispering in your ear at all times that you need to be respectful and quiet and pretty and motherly, you might not apply for a job that requires dominance either.

Just keep that in mind.

[Jaclyn_Lizzi]

How would one go about negotiating a salary? I didn't even know that was a thing.

[Irishrebel]

the only sexism in not negotiating your wage, is self inflicted sexism. if your too scared to try to get a higher wage, then you don't get to complain that it wasn't handed to you.

[PessOmist]

Every job I have known of, they hired women at the same exact wages as men.  I will never fight for doctor equality pay for women because both sexes make more than I ever will anyway. 

[castrocafe]

You mentioned that the gap was much worse then it was before, and that is very true and I'm actually very glad that you mentioned it. I come across many arguments saying that a lot of issues that we thought didn't exist, or don consider in day to day life, are actually reoccurring events that play out every day. Which is true. However, what really rustles my jimminies is when people make the issue hyperbolic. Like it's the worst thing in the universe and your a monster for not doing anything about. People tend to disregard the fact, that problems like that do exist but on the lighter side they are much better then they were before and are continuing to improve. Many people in the media take issues like these way to dramatically are Almost sounding like preachers. Im glad people like you present the information in a respectable, informative, funny, and enjoyable manner without bias and simply represent the facts. Wage gap sucks. But I'm glad I live in a time where it's getting better.

[codykennedy]

statistics show that the wage gap occurs because of maternity leave,
childcare, women work less hours, hardly negotiate their pay,
and as the lady above says, choose lower paying jobs.