Your March 15 article (Women deserve, but don't get, equal pay) mischaracterizes the facts about the gender pay gap by presuming that the gap is due to workplace discrimination.
The often mentioned 26 percent gap does not account for relevant economic factors such as experience and tenure, years and type of education, hours of work, and industry and occupation, which differ considerably between men and women. Researchers have found that when such economic factors are accounted for, the measured pay gap falls dramatically by some estimates to zero.Recent equal pay measures proposed by the AFL-CIO and others are an attempt to revive the controversial concept of comparable worth equal pay for jobs of equal value. This concept has been rejected by most economists because it is a non-market, subjective and costly concept that is more likely to hurt working women than to help them.
Anita U. Hattiangadi
Economist Employment Policy Foundation
Washington, D.C.