Help set Anderson Cooper straight on the wage gap myth

LoL, they closed the comments section, but I just sent him a email. I'm not sure it's going to count for much since most take that "Women make 77 cents for every dollar a man brings home" as gospel.

Here's what I said. Feel free to use it as is, or; modify it to your liking. I stole the bulk of it from a posting on glenn sacks site. No need to reinvent the wheel. Especially when you won't get any extra impact by writing a completely new letter on the subject.

Dear Mr. Cooper:

The gender pay gap myth has been repeatedly debunked, and I would expect more from a supposedly non-biased, and informed media figure.

The latest report on the gender wage disparity by CONSAD Research Corporation for the United States Department of Labor finally puts to rest any claims by anyone that the pay gap between men and women in this country is the result solely or mostly of sex discrimination. We know this for sure:

The report is of an analysis of some 50 studies of the earnings differential between men and women in the U.S. Its salient findings include:

* the wage gap has been "used in misleading ways to advance public policy agendas;"
* various factors explain the wage gap, such as women working fewer hours, women's greater tendency to work part time, take family or childcare leave, or take leave to care for an elder family member; these factors account for all but 5-7% of the wage gap;
* women still tend to choose lower paying jobs than do men;
* the research suggests (but for reasons of data limitation, cannot definitively conclude) that some or all of the remaining gap is explained by women's greater tendency to prefer non-wage compensation such as health insurance coverage.

The report is clear about another thing that many people have been pointing out for a long time: "One of the main reasons why women interrupt their careers is motherhood." Between 3.7% and 7.3% of the difference between men's and women's earnings is due solely to that.

Not to belabor the obvious, but if family courts were friendlier to fathers, they could take more care of children and mothers could earn more money. Feminist organizations like NOW might want to join fathers' rights groups in promoting just that. It would help men and women both.

The CONSAD report also points out that factors such as work experience and seniority are not included in the data and, although they probably play a role in the earnings gap, cannot be analyzed using existing data.

The report states that the study "leads to the unambiguous conclusion that...the raw wage gap should not be used as the basis to justify corrective action. Indeed there may be nothing to correct."

The report is dated January 12, 2009. Apparently it was posted on the U.S. Department of Labor website, but, shortly after the new administration took office, was taken down. Michael Eastman, Executive Director of Labor Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wonders why. For an administration so concerned about pay equity, you'd think they'd want us to know the truth. Also I'm still waiting for someone to seriously take on the tremendous unemployment gap during this recession that overwhelmingly effects men. But I'm not holding my breath.

- James Smith Atlanta, Georgia

One male who parrots feminist myths and a panel of four women - fairness CNN style.

PS

Anderson (or his Admin) is a wimp for closing comments at the site

----------------------
Rise, Rebel, Resist.

Isn't this the same Dept. of Labor study that was taken down from a government website a few days after Obama took office?

-ax