RealClearPolitics - Articles - The Truth About the Pay Gap

Oh, by the way, you know that pesky gender earnings gap you hear so much about? It doesn't exist

The numbers are deliberately misinterpreted for political reasons. People cite raw stats like, "One year out of college, women working full-time earn only 80 percent as much as their male colleagues earn. Ten years after graduation, women fall farther behind, earning only 69 percent as much as men earn." This is true, but meaningless. It is the case because women in general choose different, lower-paying fields, like education, and when they work in the same fields, they tend to work fewer hours. The gap grows over time because they tend to take time off for child bearing and rearing, and thus find themselves behind their age peers when they return to work.

"Take out the effects of marriage and child-rearing, and the difference between the genders suddenly vanishes. For men and women who never marry and never have children, there is no earnings gap."