Do Women Earn 23% Or 4% Less Than Men?
(Washington, D.C.) President Obama signed to executive orders Tuesday which he says will strengthen existing equal pay laws.
Both actions could make it easier for people who work for federal contractors to see how much their colleagues are making.
The move comes on what is dubbed “Equal Pay Day” and as part of Obama’s push to ensure women earn equal pay for equal work.
The White House says women earn 77% of what men earn.
CBS News however reports the 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed single women who have never married earned 96% of what men earn.
CBS reporter Major Garrett said, “In an analysis of White House salaries, which nobody here disputes, shows that the median income of female staffers is 88 percent of that of male staffers.”
Garrett says the White House explains the pay gap with its female employees by saying it is due to, ” job experience, education, and hours worked among other factors. This matters because those explanations, according to the Labor Department, explain a good deal of the gender pay gap nationally. The big difference in these stories: When President Obama discusses this issue nationally, he doesn’t mention those other work variables, only the broad figure, that 77 cents for every dollar is what women earn compared to men.”
Those who say the size of the pay gap is closer to 4% agree, saying when numbers are crunched by some groups, it’s an apples to oranges comparison.
Those standing beside claims of inequality however say no matter what a woman may choose, whether to be single, married or have children, they should always earn the ame amount of money as a man.