Furthermore, the economic status of women has never been better. The equal-pay movement is founded on the specious assumption that discrimination against female workers can be proved by comparing the compensation of all male workers to the compensation of all female workers. But this broad view ignores the consequences of the decisions men and women make over the course of their professional lives. Many women, for example, leave the workforce to have and raise children. Women tend to be less willing to commute long distances.
Women generally work about eight hours a week less than men.
These are just some of the factors which can lead employers to pay men higher wages than women. The different preferences and habits of men and women explain the variance in the sexes' pay. So it's little wonder that when the pay of workers with the same age, education and experience is examined, no wage gap appears. The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth has shown that for workers aged 27 to 33 who have never had a child, women's wages are 98 percent of men's. Among married couples, 22.6 percent of wives now earn more than their husbands.