What Should We Really Be Thinking About on Equal Pay Day?

Today is National Equal Pay Day, a day meant to bring awareness to the gender wage gap. The significance of April 14 is notable—it marks how far into the new year a woman must work in order to catch up to what her male counterparts earned the previous year.

“On average, full-time working women earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by men, and women of color face an even greater disparity,” President Barack Obama said when discussing Equal Pay Day. “This wage gap puts women at a career-long disadvantage, and it harms families, communities, and our entire economy.”

There's something about this declaration that is kind of hard to come to terms with. Throughout his time in office, women in the White House have been paid less than men: in 2009, female staffers earned an average of $72,700, while male employees were bringing in around $82,000, and just last year, women were making $78,400 while men had salaries of $88,600.

The White House's response? “The White House is doing appreciably better than the country is more broadly, but we still have more work to do at the White House,” said press secretary Josh Earnest. As in, the defense is that yes, there's a wage gap in the White House, but hey, we're doing better than the rest of the country! When the Administration is supposedly urging the nation to close the wage gap, the message simply isn't as powerful when the best they can do is be a little better than the national average.

Okay, that criticism might be a little unfair; when taking averages, the variables behind those numbers aren't being taken into account. But the same thing can be said for the national numbers the Administration is using. Rather than simply calling for equal pay today (or posting photos on Twitter of men holding a couple of cents), it's vital to think critically about the accuracy behind the statistics accompanying the wage gap, and how we can get to the core of the issue. What exactly is that number that the White House is using to talk about the gender wage gap? According to Sabrina Schaeffer, executive director of the Independent Women's Forum, that number is overstated.

“The statistical difference between women and men’s average earnings isn’t driven by widespread sexism, but largely from different choices men and women make throughout our lives,” Schaeffer explained, adding, “The Administration and its allies know the wage gap statistic is grossly misleading; in fact, last year the White House conceded the figure is flawed, yet continues to regurgitate it again this year.”

So what are these "different choices" that Schaeffer refers to? There are a number of different variables that should be taken into account. The fact of the matter is, women and men tend to make different life choices; more women than men take time off work to raise a family. Men dominate in the more dangerous careers—construction workers, iron and steel workers, pilots, amongst others—which pay more due to the risks involved. Career goals differ between men and women, even between those studying the same subjects in school; a survey found that men and women have different reasons for getting an MBA, for example. Even the American Association of University Women, an organization that has long touted the disparity in income between men and women, came to the conclusion that when all variables are accounted for, the wage gap is largely a myth.

What should we be really thinking about, then? Perhaps, why women are less likely than men to negotiate for raises. Why women are less inclined to choose work in some of the more higher-paying careers, like those in engineering, computer science and others, and instead dominate lower-paying fields such as childhood education, social work, counseling and more. When we look past the hype that the White House is claiming and at the root of the issue, we can actually take action and effect change.

With all that being said, spreading the message that women are facing that large of a pay gap and that they are victims to the system might be more damaging than if we were to simply acknowledge the truth. Think about the decisions you've made in your education and career up until this point; how many of them were forced upon you? Women today are more educated, more strong-minded and strong-willed, and more autonomous than ever before. Some of us may choose to put a career on hold to have children, while others may not (and those who remain childless and unmarried actually make more than men do). Many of us value what we do over how much we make, and we're totally aware that it means six figures won't be in our future. Others will go on to be powerful CEOs of companies one day. The paths we take are guided by our personal choices, and it's time to respect those choices, whatever they may be. We shouldn't be painting women as victims. Rather, we should recognize that women are independent enough to be forging their own paths; and while it's valuable to be looking at the reasons behind why women make the choices they do, it doesn't do anybody a service to mark the income disparity as an unfortunate inequality that women are powerless to take on.