UK: Cut the crap about the gender pay gap

Article here. Excerpt:

'Where would we be without the gender pay gap? With girls outperforming boys at school, outnumbering male students at university, and women experiencing no more practical hindrances than men to achieving anything they want in life, feminists have been forced to shift their attention to the more nebulous cultural sphere in order to prove that women remain victims of a patriarchal conspiracy. Often played out in the messy virtual world, feminism has been reduced to a question of lifestyle choice and personal identity, with the supporters of the Twitter hashtag #YesAllWomen hysterically pitched against those in the #WomenAgainstFeminism camp. So, apparent evidence that women really are disadvantaged in a way that can be counted and measured, through the pay gap, is greeted with an almost audible sigh of relief.
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But the above suggests that, for all the shrinkage of the pay gap, it is still the case that women are hard done by in comparison with men. Certainly, these headline-grabbing statistics about a smaller but still existing pay gap are used by politicians and campaigners in their handwringing over the plight of women and girls today. However, what is less well known is that such statistics are arrived at by conflating the earnings of women of all ages, all occupations, and those in part-time and full-time work. The reality is that for people aged under 40 and working full-time, the gender pay gap is around zero; since 2009 women aged 22 to 29 have actually earned more than men. Furthermore, evidence shows that as the pay gap falls first for younger people, this smaller differential sticks with each generational cohort as they age. So, if current trends continue, the pay gap should be a thing of the past in the space of some 20 years.

This generational effect is rarely noted in glossy campaigns and petitions, such as Mind the Gap; instead, the 20 per cent pay gap is reported unquestioningly. However, not only does this figure take no account of age – it also ignores the type of work undertaken. Wages vary considerably according to job, and for many reasons women have not always chosen to go into the highest paying careers. All the evidence suggests that this is beginning to change – as the number of female graduates increases, so does the number of women entering well-paid professions. Gender pay-gaps do of course exist within professions, but again much of this is down to more women choosing to become nurses rather than doctors, or remaining as classroom teachers rather than moving into school management. While it’s fair to ask why women make these kinds of choices, it is not surprising women are paid less for doing a different job.'