Notes

Recap of Gender Pay Gap unbiasead:

So yeah, neither side is completely right, but the "right" seems to be more accurate than the left- this is even acknowledged by notoriously left-leaning website Vox. In truth, it IS an earnings gap vs wage gap. No one can argue you will get paid less for the same work. But, the gap does exist and should/can be changed via workplace policy.

Essentially, when you control for marriage and children in discussion, we find the wage gap shrunk to 95%. Unmarried women without children and women with children are two entirely separate groups in this discussion, and by comparing reasons for that we can find the likely reasons for the general gap itself. Even if we assume the last 5% difference isn't covered by biological disposition to avoid confrontation (see agreeableness), or simply job choice, or Pareto distribution tendency to shy away from extreme over achievement, we still have an extremely viable and simultaneously non-malicious explanation: to quote the Harvard economist who ran one of the most comprehensive studies on the pay gap, Claudia Goldin, "certain hours are more important than others in some jobs- and those jobs have especially high wage gaps."

Considering the fact that women traditionally accept the duties of the house and of childcare, it's no question that they are disadvantaged in terms of flexibility. So our solution isn't to debate the other qualities or legitimacy of the gap, and it's not to overcompensate with troublesome equity practices. The solution to the flexibility induced gender earnings gap is to either: a. change cultural norms about home responsibilities or b. change workplace norms about flexible hours just as pharmacy did shifting from mom & pop shops to anonymous clock punchers. Our first option is idealistic at best, so to reach a target of "equal pay," if we do still deem that a valuable goal once all other factors are taken into account, we need to lessen the effect strict hours play on wages earned.

Endnote: Another noteworthy pay gap statistic is that the gap rises near the standard age of motherhood and decreases past it... significantly.