This document discusses reasons why women may not earn equal pay compared to men, despite doing equal work. It argues that childbearing responsibilities often interrupt women's work, as they need time off for childcare issues, school pickups, and other family duties. This leads to women accumulating skills and advancing in their careers more slowly than men who do not have these interruptions. As a result, the document claims it is not fair to expect employers to provide equal pay when the work is not equally consistent due to child-related interruptions. It also notes that women tend to advance most early in their careers before having children or later after children are raised, but are less competitive during child-rearing years.

1. Equal pay for equal work…
I am so ill of hearing about “equal pay for equal work,” and the very old “glass ceiling issue.”
Do NOT get me wrong! I feel women in the workforce, when they are able to work, are just as
valuable, skilled, and knowledgeable as their male counterparts, physically demanding jobs
aside. Does ANY intelligent employer really question that? Of my 190 employees, all but 20
are female and all do a great job. Despite these facts, there are reasons that women tend not to
earn equal pay, there are reasons they bust through the glass ceiling late in their careers, if at all.
CHILDBEARING. Hello???
When I hire a male, I know that menses will not enter the picture (male PMS maybe), there is
very unlikely to be extended FMLA associated with child bearing and bonding (however our
liberal society is even eroding into this). There are rare daycare issues, not having to leave early
or suddenly for a fever, or only work till 3:00 p.m. because “the kids are getting home from
school.” Gee, are these really MY problems? My main focus is to meet customer needs, and
generate a profit so that the business is successful in providing employment.
Is this fair to women that these extra family duties usually befall them? No, not at all. But, is it
fair to the employer to provide equal pay for equal work when the work is repeatedly and often
very inconveniently interrupted by child-related issues? No. And in the finer definition of
‘equal work,’ it isn't even equal, is it? Not really.
Because of child rearing, women spend a good deal of their working careers, working part time
for employers, and part time for their families. This leads naturally to a slower skill set
accumulation, and ergo slower advancement. It also leads to the very odd phenomenon we see in
our organization, that advancement is greatest in single young childless females, and in older
females who have raised their children into adolescence. Even so, the younger ones being less
experienced, cannot be maximally advanced and taken seriously by their colleagues, and the
older ones may have lost some of their edge, particularly with technology.
So, being female is not a great place to be looking for “equal pay for equal work” and to speed
ahead of male counterparts who have been consistently present and accounted for in the
workplace. Sorry for being brutally honest.