This enlightened article from Forbes deserves to be reproduced here in full, as it reads as if written by a fellow Cubist.

The Gender Pay Gap Is Just the Beginning of America's Pay Inequity Problem

Today, the average full-time working woman earns just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns…in 2014, that's an embarrassment. It is wrong[highlight=#NaNNaNNaN].” [/highlight] Troubling stuff. Obama this week announced with great fanfare an executive order banning federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their wages.

The latest presidential action is like a three-foot bridge over a thousand-foot chasm, though. Nor would the Paycheck Fairness Act that is currently stalled in Congress solve the problem, given that pay discrimination on the basis of sex is already illegal. When you look at the statistics, you will realize that far broader legislation is needed to close the innumerable pay gaps in American life.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey for 2012, the real figure for median usual weekly income of women compared to men is 81 cents on the dollar. But is that any less bothersome? After all the progress women have made, shouldn't they now be making exactly the same amount as men? Perhaps women should be paid even more, to make up for past discrimination or merely to punish men for exerting their masculine privilege for far too long.

Senate and House Democrats argue for the passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act (Photo credit: Senate Democrats)

Yet addressing the male-female pay gap -2.55% simply raises the question of what to do about all the other pay gaps.

Consider that (see p. 10 of the survey) the median weekly income for a US adult worker is $768. Among black men that figure is $665. Black men, therefore, make only 87 cents on the dollar compared to all workers. Among black women that figure is even more dire: 78 cents on the dollar. The president should back a bill – call it the African-American Wage Equality Act — to address the wage gap between black Americans and Americans overall.

But why stop with black Americans? Latino Americans are doing even worse. The median usual weekly wage among Latino men who hold full time jobs is only $592 — that's 77 cents on the dollar compared to all Americans. Latino women, shockingly, earn only 68 cents on the dollar compared to all Americans. The president needs to put before Congress a Latino Pay Equality Act to ensure that Latinos are no longer ripped off by our economic system.

Many other worrying pay gaps remain, though. Asian women ‘s median usual weekly wage is almost exactly the same as that of Americans as a whole, so that's satisfactory, but among Asian men the situation becomes truly frightening. Asian men earn an astounding 137 cents on the dollar compared to Americans overall. An emergency Asian Men's Pay Reduction Act must quickly be proposed and enacted by Congress to address this imbalance.

And yet, the more laws we pass to remedy these various disparities, the more obvious it becomes that we haven't gotten to the cruelest and most sordid pay anomalies. Food-service managers are royalty– paid $744 a week — compared to the drudges who actually work the till. “Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food” are paid a measly median wage of $382, according to the same 2012 BLS survey that provided the above statistics. So frontline, entry-level fast-food workers are paid only 51 cents on the dollar compared to their managers. Are these two jobs really that different? Perhaps before any of the laws above are enacted, we should rush to rectify this injustice with the Burger Kings Not Burger Serfs Act, which would mandate that everyone who works in a given fast-food establishment be paid exactly the same wage, regardless of skills, experience, or education.

Now we're making some headway at last. Outlawing pay discrimination based on those factors opens the doors to criminalizing pay discrimination based on career choices, hours worked, market demand, working conditions, flexibility of schedule and all the other factors that go into wages. Did you know that the median wage for aerospace engineers is $1,645 a week? For lawyers $1909 dollars a week? For architectural and engineering managers $2,122 a week?

Compared to these workers, food preparation and serving workers are getting paid only 23 cents on the dollar, 20 cents on the dollar and an unseemly and brutally unfair 18 cents on the dollar. Are any of these Americans more or less deserving than any others? Isn't it unfair that some are rewarded for having jobs that demand more intelligence, dedication or training? Or longer working hours, less congenial working conditions or a greater tolerance for danger? It's a fact that American women, for all of these reasons and others, are paid less than men. But other groups suffer as much pay discrimination as women, if not more.

President Obama, you're thinking far too small. Forget all of the above legislation. Don't bother with meaningless executive orders that solve the nonexistent problem of workers being forbidden to discuss their pay with one another. The Equal Pay for Everyone Act would mandate that employers stop discriminating on the basis of economic value, and pay all working Americans exactly the same wage every week, forever.

Are you sure that's satire?

" Not only satire .... a well written satire by my way of reckonin' ", so stated Krasnodar, Minister of Spirits Transport and Vagabond of the Outer Parts.

Parody? Who said parody? This is Next Tuesday™!

Komrade Blogunov, what you fail to understand here is just how brilliant, cunning and - from the perspective of the counter-counter-revolutionary conservative and TEAbagger ranks - devious Dear Leader is! He has instituted a comprehensive program to ensure that there is absolutely no discrimination in the work place, based on any mitigating circumstance, by, progressively, eliminating the work place altogether! This will, eventually lead to a system of single payer income, everyone being paid equally, party leaders not withstanding, since they are clearly more equal than the rest of us. This brilliant strategy will also have the effect of nullifying all resistance to the Forward March of Progress™ by ensuring that those ingrates who refuse to appreciate the brilliance of Dear Leader will not be awash with surplus funds with which to finance the grievance mongers. Dear Leader has even managed to avoid appearing arrogant by actually convincing the ever unreliable Congress to write and enact the laws ensuring the success of his unwritten and unreported anti-discrimination master stroke! You must remember that Dear Leader is always several steps ahead of us. Almost like a God!

Komissar Blogunov wrote:The Equal Pay for Everyone Act would mandate that employers stop discriminating on the basis of economic value, and pay [highlight=#ffff99]all working Americans[/highlight] exactly the same wage every week, forever.

An "escape clause" Komissar? Am I correct in assuming that US Senators, Representatives, and Dear Leader Himself are excused from participation? I certainly hope so - otherwise how could they be expected to maintain their current standard of living?

Will they finally pay the unemployed who have the biggest gap in America, $0.00 on the dollar?

my only question is "How old is the corpse of the lovely and talented Rosa DeLauro?" She is involved in a fraud worthy of the hack-a-rama of the old Kremlin. She raises money for the DCCC and gives it to her husband's (what a lucky guy) consulting firm.
https://www.humanevents.com/2011/10/04/ ... questions/

Captain Craptek wrote:An [highlight=#ffff00]"escape clause"[/highlight] Komissar? Am I correct in assuming that US Senators, Representatives, and Dear Leader Himself are excused from participation? I certainly hope so - otherwise how could they be expected to maintain their current standard of living?

No 'escape clause' is necessary, Comrade Craptek. It is a well-known principle of Communism that those working most reverently and fervently towards making the glorious world of Next Tuesday™ a reality are, by default, Heroes of the State™ and thus more equal than any mere citizen worker and/or population unit. They therefore deserve a more-equal share of the redistribution, the better to afford their necessary solar-powered dachas and chauffeur-driven hybrid limousines.

As for Dear Leader himself, he could be sustained simply by making his manifestos autobiographies required purchases and readings. Compliance would, of course, be enforced by a special counterrevolutionary tax levied by the People's Bureau of Internal Redistribution Services™.

I am guardedly optimistic that I might make as much as a US Democrat Senator or Representative. I am willing to compromise my fleeting moral compass for Democracy Alliance, USA Action and Progress Now money. I am ready to love Act Blue, America Votes, the ACLU, Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Common Cause, and OFA. In other words... Mr. Soros, I love you man.

Soviet Mike,It is people like you, patriotic to the proletariat and Glorious Leader (PBUH), that will make the Glorious World of Next Tuesday™ possible! Party members must be willing to shirk off the restrains of bourgeois concepts like "morality" and "intelligence" for the sake of being open to mindlessly accepting listening to all available party-approved propaganda information such as presented by MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS and their ilk. Remember when watching it is the job of party elite to demonstrate in their dwellings all available decorating options for the minions people. By the way, I noticed you have some additional vodka in your bottle. May I see it? I need to assimilate some for the party.

I can scarcely type for the tears welling in my eyes. Let me wipe off the mouth of the bottle for you Comrade. "Hа здоровье!"

Captain Craptek wrote:

Komissar Blogunov wrote:The Equal Pay for Everyone Act would mandate that employers stop discriminating on the basis of economic value, and pay [highlight=#ffff99]all working Americans[/highlight] exactly the same wage every week, forever.

An "escape clause" Komissar? Am I correct in assuming that US Senators, Representatives, and Dear Leader Himself are excused from participation? I certainly hope so - otherwise how could they be expected to maintain their current standard of living?