The wage gap, one of the most supposedly prevalent inequalities women face in their daily lives, is not necessarily as relevant as it appears to be. Some women question the reason why a nation that has come this far in improving women’s rights still manages to pay women less than men for the same amount of work being done.  

To answer this question, one may begin by breaking down the origin of the phrase “a women’s 77 cents to a man’s dollar,” a phrase which does not accurately depict the true wage difference between men and women.

This widely used expression comes from the US Department of Labor statistics. In 2009, the US Department of Labor compared the average annual salaries of men and women in the workforce.

Although the government serves as a reliable source, this study failed to take into account three extremely important factors.  These factors, when taken into account, demonstrate a considerable shrinkage in the wage gap; some may even argue for its disappearance.

The first factor is that women tend to hone in on different occupations than men.  These jobs happen to pay lower salaries since they require less years of training and experience. Women tend to dominate in fields such as nursing, teaching and social working, which can provide lower salary rates than the rates of stereotypical “male” jobs.

In contrast, the top fields that men overwhelmingly dominate include electrical engineering, business, contracting and construction services, as well as medicine.  

Although these differences in career choices create a gap in the earnings between men and women, they do not create this large wage gap. Women in these male-dominated fields who work in the same region with a similar experience earn approximately equal wages in comparison to their male counterparts.

The second factor which results in an apparent wage gap is that women tend to take more time off from paid work than men do. Whether a woman chooses to stay home and take care of her child, or chooses to work a part-time job, less time is being spent in the office regardless.  Men also work, on average, forty-two more minutes in a day than women, and are statistically less likely to take sick days, vacations, and total amount of days off from work.

Another factor one must consider when weighing the validity and significance of the wage gap is that most women are cheaper to hire and cost less per hour. This stimulates the controversy questioning the reason why women aren’t working in more “expensive” or valuable positions.

Thirdly, a company’s main goal is always to increase its revenue and save as much money possible. In that case, why would they pay men more for the same job? As Christina Hoff Summers said, “If this were really true, clever entrepreneurs would fire all their male employees, replace them with females, and enjoy a huge market advantage.” A woman who is capable of completing the same job as a man would cost a company 23 percent less to employ.  Therefore, the woman would be hired over the man.

If the outcome of both employees were equal, the company would instead disregard the thought of  the gender of the employee. Taking into account these factors ultimately shrinks the wage gap to about 4%, since there are still some cases of workplace bias against women.

In general, the original statistic has misled many women into believing that they are economically oppressed in all cases when, in fact, studies published in 2010 actually report a “reverse pay gap” in major cities such as New York, Albany, Los Angeles and Austin. In these cities, women actually earn 10-12% more than men.

What’s more, in Inglewood, California, women make 20% more than men.

Empowering women is not done by proclaiming that a 23 percent wage gap is oppressive, but rather by facing issues that exist and matter to all women.