Originally Posted by raymor

The link and the OP are both missing something important. The OP shows why it worlds be ILLOGICAL to pay women less (or equivalently, to be unwilling to pay them about the same). Yes, but the feminists agree that discrimination is illogical - stupid. Just because a company would be stupid to discriminate doesn't prove that they don't.

A stronger version of the OPs argument would be involve several parts:

Companies that do not discriminate have a competive advantage over those that don't, by getting better people at better prices.

Companies owned or controlled by women are unlikely to discriminate against women.

Thefore, companies owned or controlled by women will, on average, do better than companies that discriminate.

Companies owned or controlled by women do not in fact do better on advantage than most companies.

Therefore most companies don't discriminate. (If they did, the female run companies would be bearing them.)

On the other hand, the link, like all similar studies I've seen, is also lacking. It's very difficult to do a proper control for such a study. For example, most women I know stayed home with their kids for a while. People who choose to delay or interrupt their careers by staying home will of.course miss out on experience and advancement opportunities. That's not discrimination, that's "Ted has been here for five years. Lisa just started with this company last year after staying home for three years and falling behind the technology." Who is more likely to get a raise? I have a friend who was let go partially because a couple times per month she had to leave work for half a day to go deal with some trouble her kids got into. When she left, coworkers had to scramble to try to do her job and theirs simultaneously. She wasn't a reliable employee, in other words, because of her kids. It's awefully hard to design a study that takes all of those kinds of factors into account.

The only company I know 100% about is RMEE. Here, the women average higher salaries than the men, even though the health insurance cost we pay is 50% higher for women.