has visited the Guardian, who reprint almost in full a press release from the Equal Opportunities Commission. Women get paid less per hour than men.
Shock.
Given that this is about hourly wage rates across the whole of the business world, this is about as shocking as suggesting that dead things tend to pong a bit. Why do women earn less on average than men? Because, generally, more women work in lower paid jobs than do men. And it tends to be men who dominate the professions and boardrooms where truly massive wages are paid.
Now, this might be a scandal in itself (if you accept the glass ceiling without accepting the glass coffin). And it might be a scandal that women and men doing the same jobs are paid at different rates (though there are some good reasons for that too), though that’s another issue entirely. But it’s no surprise.
It relies on the public’s general miasma of mind concerning statistics. And it relies on one of those stultifyingly weak, ‘and another thing…’ arguments.