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I heard a blurb on BSU Radio about wage inequality in Idaho. It was short, and I’m not sure I 
heard everything, but what I thought I heard was that women in Idaho generally get paid about 60% of what men get paid. Well, maybe, but I doubt that it’s that simple. I believe that there are instances where women, everything else being equal, get paid less. …But, I think the “women get paid less” meme is mostly inaccurate or at least overstated. These stats, or what I read and hear of them, almost never take into account differing circumstances. I believe that by and large women doing the same job, for the same length of time, with the same qualifications and experience, get paid the same as men/IdaBlue. More here
Question: Do you think there’s wage inequality between men and women in Idaho and elsewhere in the Inland Northwest?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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JamesBond on March 26 at 1:48 p.m.
On average, women are shorter and lighter than men, so it makes sense to me that they would be paid a little less.
LukeB on March 26 at 2:44 p.m.
Translation: “I’m not a statistician, but I’m more than happy to play one by making a totally unfounded assertion based on anecdotal evidence and my own predisposed beliefs. I am a typical American.”
scootermom on March 26 at 3:02 p.m.
An anecdote is not a statistic. Statistics are consitent across occupations. Women make less. A lot less.
And it’s not because we’re shorter and lighter.