I think you are right though.

It cannot be “justified.” However, it can be explained as being due to institutionalized sexism.

We have a CEO who is female and came out to our office when we were acquired. Suddenly all the women in the office were asked to drop everything and come to dinner – because they couldn’t go without a woman – cause that would look bad. So they were trying to pass off a woman that wasn’t leadership – so THEY don’t look like gender bias jerks for not promoting any women into leadership. I was so angry that 2 women in the office went along with this. When the president literally says ‘please come, we can’t show up without any women’, fix the problem and promote a woman. I’m not asking for any woman, I am talking about someone that is poised to move up already – that ticks off just as many ‘leadership’ boxes as any man currently in leadership team, but still hasn’t been promoted in 7 years.

I love you!

Thank you for helping me point this out. This is so true. This post is just keeping the wage gap alive by not talking to the examples that are exact matches in title, company, experience, but still women make so much less without ever having a job gap or having kids.

Also, at some large companies there is a bias in the opposite direction. In North America lawsuits are as common as beach pebbles, and the spectacle and variety of discrimination lawsuits against large firms by current and former female/LGBT/visible minority employees has made companies very sensitive to the dangers of even appearing to step out of line. (Smaller firms can discriminate or be perceived to discriminate as well, but they are less likely to get sued for the simple reason that they are smaller and therefore a substantial payout is unlikely.)

For example, one of my acquaintances attests that his company, afraid of being seen as not promoting enough female employees, might take a female executive secretary and promote her to V.P. with the title, salary and office… and yet strangely no one works for her. Conversely, according to him, all male V.P.s at said company have at least $37 million in scope.

I didn’t know right away. I brought up a few different treatment issues. My boss was the same ethnic group as my male colleague and told me the colleague needed to find a wife and get married and have a family soon.

1. The pay gap numbers that vary around 79 cents on the dollar don’t match job for job. It’s a straight average men’s salary to average women’s salary. That’s why it’s ridiculous.

2. If you know where this is taking place then you should file a complaint with the OFCCP. Now.

3. Of course some people are more productive than others, but when we’re talking pay, hours worked plays a tremendous role. Remember, a large percentage of the population is paid by the hour. Even if they aren’t more productive, they are earning more if they work more.

Additionally, in many of the top earning fields, workers bill clients by the hours. If you bill 100 more hours per year than I do, that’s a noticeable difference in revenue. Of course the company will reward you.

4. If you can get 40 hours worth of work done in 32 your pay shouldn’t be lowered. But, in all honesty, most people get 32 hour worth of work done in 32 hours.

I’m all about pay for results and not paying for butt-in-seat time, but you’re going to be hard pressed to convince me that women are super productive compared to their male counterparts.