Pay issue politicized

Democrats are trying their best to divert attention from the Obamacare problems as the next election approaches. The latest issue, brought up by President Obama himself, is pay equality between men and women.

In a recent appearance, he stated that women make only 77 cents for every dollar a man earns; a statement about as accurate as, “If you like your plan, you can keep it.” When some critical factors are considered, women earned nearly the same as men in 2012. When women enter the job market after childbirth they have less work experience than men, and so make less. Working mothers also seek jobs providing greater flexibility, and those jobs almost always pay less.

High-risk jobs, such as logging and mining, pay more and rarely employ women. Men also pursue riskier occupations, such as law or finance, where the pay is higher. When all these circumstances are considered, women make 96 cents for every dollar a man earns.

If there really was a 23-cent disparity, why wouldn’t companies replace male employees with women? The answer is because it doesn’t exist for doing the exact same work as men.

Hal Dixon

Spokane