Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Wurzelbacher Draws Blood in Gender Equity Debate

Republican hopeful, Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher has landed a hard jab square on the chin of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. His campaign has analyzed the data for Kaptur's staff and concluded that a male employed by Kaptur earns $23,000 more than a female. Evidently the charge stung Kaptur enough that she had to respond by releasing her payroll data to The Blade. According to Miss Kaptur's office staff list provided to The Blade, the current average pay for the nine male staffers is $71,777, and the average pay for the eight female staffers is $48,375, a difference of $23,402.
Senate Democrats have been pushing the "gender equity" issue as part of their party's effort to gin up a Republican war on women mime that is continuing to lose traction.
Essentially, Kaptur's defense is; "It's different when we do it." I don't doubt that Kaptur's pay formula is fair. Disparities in pay are not the result discrimination but reflect choices people make in their personal lives. Women of child rearing years put a premium on flexible hours that allow them to care for their children. Understandably they work shorter hours and may withdraw from the workforce for years.
Kaptur may be a fair employer but she is a huge hypocrite. Under the proposed legislation that Kaptur backs a private sector employer with the exact same pay schedule could have to defend himself in court at considerable expense. As Wurzelbacher says, "If Marcy Kaptur believes that we need new regulations on American businesses in order to address the problem of workplace-pay disparity, she should lead by example. This is just another case of politicians making rules for everybody else that they don't have to follow themselves,"

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