Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, or the day that supposedly marks when women have earned enough to make up for the last year’s wage gap. According to the American Association of University Women, “This symbolic day is used to raise awareness around and combat the impact of pay inequities.”
It is important to address the data the AAUW and other women’s groups point to for Equal Pay Day. Based on the current population survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, the median earnings of full-time, year-round workers in 2023 differed between men and women. The median earnings of women were $55,240, while men’s earnings were $66,790, so the female-to-male earnings ratio was 0.83. Proponents of the wage gap use this statistic to argue that women only make 83 cents for every dollar a man makes.
This statistic doesn’t take into account important labor choices, such as hours worked, fields of work, and commute times. Sometimes workers value different aspects of a job differently, such as flexibility.
One action politicians can take to benefit women is to give them more choice in the workplace so that they are compensated in a way that is most valuable to them. For example, some Americans, including many mothers, would prefer additional paid time off rather than additional pay for extra work. Currently, the Fair Labor Standards Act requires that covered nonexempt employees receive overtime pay for working overtime hours. Accumulating paid leave is not an option.
Many people eligible to earn overtime pay would benefit from the choice of overtime pay or paid leave as compensation and appreciate having the option. The House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the Committee on Education and the Workforce is holding a hearing on Tuesday that includes this issue, “The Future of Wage Laws: Assessing the FLSA’s Effectiveness, Challenges, and Opportunities.”
This is a worthwhile area for reform, according to Jonathan Wolfson, chief legal officer and policy director at the Cicero Institute and formerly the head of the Department of Labor’s policy office. He is testifying at the hearing and told me, “For a working parent, an extra day off to play with your kids when they don’t have school may be way more valuable than a few extra dollars of overtime pay. There’s nothing ‘fair’ about an FLSA that only lets parents who work for the government choose that option, while everyone working for a nonprofit or for-profit business must take overtime pay instead of compensatory time off.”
THE LEFT SAYS I’M DOING FEMINISM WRONG
Workplace flexibility matters. The McKinsey & Company “2023 Women in the Workplace” report found that “38 percent of mothers with young children say that without workplace flexibility, they would have had to leave their company or reduce their work hours.”
Let Americans, including women, pick the compensation that is best for them. Many people would, and do, trade pay for flexibility. On Equal Pay Day, let’s empower workers by giving them more opportunity to make that choice.
Karin Lips (@klips) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is the founder and president of the Network of Enlightened Women and a senior fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum.