Monday, February 3, 2014

OMG Claim: Minimum Wage Increase Is a Feminist Issue

Under the headline, Minimum Wage Increase Is a Feminist Issue, Paula Dwyer writes for Bloomberg:
The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is very helpful in breaking down the demographics. It shows that about 3.6 million people were paid at or below $7.25 an hour in 2012.

One popular misconception is that most minimum-wage earners are relatively well-off teenagers working part time in coffee shops and college book stores. But it isn't true. Teens make up only 24 percent of the total, while those 25 and older comprise 49 percent.

Another popular belief is that minimum-wage workers are mostly part-timers looking to supplement the earnings of a spouse (read: wife) or other householder. Here, the data are partially supportive. Two-thirds of minimum-wage earners hold part-time positions. And indeed they are mostly women. Females make up two-thirds of the part-timers. But among low-paid women, more than half had never married and only 15 percent were married and living with their spouses.

Looking at the U.S. labor force overall, women are almost twice as likely as men to be paid at or below $7.25 an hour (6 percent versus 3.34 percent). White women make up the largest chunk (50 percent) followed by Hispanic women (11.9 percent) and black women (9.9 percent).

Here's another surprise: Minimum-wage earners aren't mostly high-school dropouts, not by a long shot. More than 70 percent have at least a high-school diploma. More than 34 percent have had some college, and 8 percent have at least a bachelor's degree.

Get the picture? The composite of a minimum-wage earner is a woman who lives in the South, works part time in fast-food or retail and has at least a high-school degree. Next time you walk into a McDonald's south of the Mason-Dixon, wish her well.
Dwyer, herself, seems to spill the beans on what is going on when she mentions McDonald's workers. It is not that women are paid less for the same work, it is that often women chose jobs where there obviously is a lot of labor competition (otherwise the wages wouldn't be so low). And, for the same work, McDonald's most assuredly pays male workers the same as female. There is no "feminist" issue here at all. It is all about basic supply and demand economics. The real issue here is ignorance of basic economics by a feminist.

11 comments:

  1. "Looking at the U.S. labor force overall, women are almost twice as likely as men to be paid at or below $7.25 an hour (6 percent versus 3.34 percent). White women make up the largest chunk (50 percent) followed by Hispanic women (11.9 percent) and black women (9.9 percent).".
    .
    If we gave all those women a raise, Uncle Sam could afford PRE-pre-K.
    And supper.

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    1. It's like saying that there is a war on men because over 90% of all workplace fatalities are men.

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  2. "Minimum Wage Increase Is a Feminist Issue"

    These women have nothing better to do than bitch about non issues. Why? Because they have become so irrelevant. They make things up since there is nothing to fight for now. Just another corrupt and statist special interest group.

    "The real issue here is ignorance of basic economics by a feminist."

    Robert, believe me, these feminists don't care AT ALL whether or not its economics. Remember, this is the same group that actually believes that video games are misogynist or some such nonsense. They MAKE IT UP because they have no reason to exist. Hell, I'm sure they are completely ignorant when it comes to economics but even if they weren't they DO NOT CARE.

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  3. I wonder if this leftist twit understands that many females being paid under $7.25 make a nice chunk of change in tip money ?

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  4. Perfect example of a dishonest idiot with a pen and a study they either don't understand or assume their audience will not question their misuse of the data. Of course most have a high school diploma, like those are hard to get. And when it comes to "some college", that can be just about anything from a high school AP class to a course taken at work and presented as "college level" -- this is big in f&b. Then we have 1/2 are not married, as if that indicates sole household bread winner, because we all know that in this day in age, living together unmarried is socially unacceptable and just not done. Then she covers her dishonest use of the data by say at or below federal min wage. Uh, if you are paid below minimum wage, you are in the F&B industry and make a lot more than minimum wage when you count tips. Surely she can't be so thick as to not know this. And then we have lots of double counting. Kids are taken out and then added back in I guess to up the female count. Very dishonest or just plain stupid. Not sure where the South came from, other than your typical liberal bigotry towards Southern people. I guess this fool thinks that nominal wages are all that matters. Nevermind that someone making a slightly higher minimum wage in a left wing hell hole is actually worse off than someone in the South making just the federal minimum wage. I mean, cost of living in New York City has to be close to Waynesville, NC.

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  5. Recall that "feminism" is often just female code for unlimited gynocracy.

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    1. "Feminism" is just a code word for unlimited socialism. USSR was a feminist wet dream - every woman had to work just as hard as men did, for the same pittance. Oh, and they had to raise children, too. While the men who learned hard way that no matter how hard they try they're not going anywhere drowned their desperation in vodka. So the liberated women also got to nurse their alcoholic husbands. Win!

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    2. You hit the nail on the head Anon.

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  6. One more thing: Notice how, once again, women and nonwhite men have been positioned scurrilously as the victims of injustice. So feminism is also about an irrational fear and loathing of white males. Since there is usually among feminists an undercurrent of unconditional sympathy for homosexuals and for the socialist agenda, we can clarify the feminist phobia by saying that feminism is about fear and loathing of straight white males who refuse to bow and scrape before leftists.

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  7. Notice the use of aggregate statistics to hide the truth under the veneer of a rational, facts based argument. I like to explain to people who use the wage gap argument that aggregate statistics do not control for really any of the variables affecting what the are trying to measure (in this case, the difference in pay between men and women). All that statistic tells you is that there is a difference, but any reason you may deduce from that stat is purely conjecture and has no basis in facts.

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  8. Feminists: red on the inside; tits on the outside.

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