WASHINGTON-House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) and Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) opened today’s hearing about equal pay emphasizing that any two individuals with equal education working the same job should receive the same compensation regardless of any other facts, such as sex, race, or any other irrelevant characteristic.
In his remarks, Ranking Member Comer discussed how school closures and lockdowns have had a disproportionate, detrimental role on women in the workforce and called for our nation to follow the science and reopen both schools and the economy.
In her remarks, Congresswoman Mace called on Democrats to stop using general statistics to back up claims that women make substantially less on the dollar than men. Mace emphasized the statistical nuances that depict a much more accurate picture in the incomes of men versus women and called on everyone to focus on working towards true equal opportunity and individual flexibility.
Below are Ranking Member Comer’s remarks as prepared for delivery.
Thank you, Chairwoman Maloney, for convening this hearing.
I want to set the tone for this hearing by saying two people who have the same education and perform the same job should receive the same compensation regardless of their gender, race, or any other irrelevant characteristic.
I think we all agree on that.
And as we discuss this important topic, I think it is important to note how the pandemic has devastated women in the workforce.
Overall, since the start of the pandemic women have lost nearly 1 million more jobs than men and account for 55 percent of overall net job loss.
Not only are women more likely to be in the jobs that were lost when the country shut down, but the responsibility of supervising children in their remote schooling has fallen most heavily on mothers.
Recent data shows that nearly one in four women are considering downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce all together to care for their children.
Yet, the data shows that community spread is not tied to school spread and we know kids are safer in school. Many teachers have been vaccinated so it’s time now to prioritize our kids.
We must reopen schools for full in-person instruction and the reopen the economy to get women back in the workforce.
With that, I yield the remainder of my time to Congresswoman Mace, a pioneer for women in the workforce and the first woman to graduate from the Citadel, the military college of South Carolina.
Below are Congresswoman Nancy Mace’s remarks as prepared for delivery.
Below are Congresswoman Nancy Mace’s remarks as prepared for delivery.
Thank you, Ranking Member Comer, and thank you, Chairwoman Maloney, for convening this hearing. As someone who has broken glass ceilings and barriers all her life, like many of the women on here today and watching, I want to say thank you. But, I also don’t want to have a message of doom and gloom. I want to have a message of hope for every woman who is out there working or in the home today-this should also be a celebration for women.
When we talk about equality and equal rights, our constitutional rights to equality are covered and protected under the 14th Amendment. Because if it’s not, then I have not protections today. I believe as a hardworking, single mom, and American that my rights are protected under the Constitution today and I’m not denied by those rights.
I want to start off by echoing the Ranking Member’s statement: Two people who have the same education and perform the same job should receive the same compensation regardless of their gender, race, or any other irrelevant characteristic.
However, it is important when talking about this issue to acknowledge the raw number, which has been cited by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and will no doubt be used through the duration of this hearing, does not give an accurate picture. I think it’s important when we talk about data that we look at the entire picture.
The raw wage gap number is not a measure of equal pay for equal work. It is a comparison of averages.
The often-cited statistic of women earning 80 cents per dollar men earn does not actually compare women and men in the same profession, who work the same hours, with the same qualifications or experience.
So, while we have this important conversation, let us start with the data in context.
Once adjusted for factors such as hours worked, compensation packages, and family and marital status, the gender wage gap I believe is significantly smaller today. In most cases it is actually between 2 and 10 percent.
I am not saying there is no gender wage gap. I am saying that it is statistically unlikely that women earn less than men. I’m just saying it’s not because of widespread discrimination. There’s always been discrimination and we may never be able to resolve it 100%. I’ve been in a male dominated industry my entire life, and I’ve seen that discrimination every industry that I’ve been in.
Thanks to existing legislation like the 1963 Equal Pay Act and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, wage discrimination is illegal and bad actors should be held accountable in the civil justice system.
In order to get a clearer picture, let’s briefly look into the data, starting with hours worked.
The 2019 Department of Labor’s Time Use Survey found the average full-time working man spends 8.32 hours a day on the job compared to 7.73 hours for the full-time working woman.
Let’s be clear here, this is not a reflection of effort. Women on average spend much more time doing other unpaid work.
A survey done in 2019 said on an average day, 22 percent of men said they did housework compared to almost half of women. There are statistically significant differences.
But hours worked is not the only factor to consider here. Data shows that women, in general, are willing to trade higher pay for jobs with more flexibility. Whereas the data shows that men are often willing to trade flexibility for higher pay.
Children also play a role in all of this.
These are important factors when we are having this conversation.
Not too long ago we as women we didn’t have the ability to make decisions about our professional careers, our personal lives, where we went to school-all of these have been achievements and successes that we have. I want us to celebrate those.
As the Ranking Member said prior the pandemic women were joining the workforce at a faster pace than men, and women outnumbered men in earing college degrees. But, in the last year, we’ve seen because of school closures, we’ve had over 3 million women leave the workplace. This has been devastating to the progress that we’ve made of women going into work and having careers.
I cannot express how devastating. We’ve set ourselves back decades because of school closures.
We must continue to work for equal opportunity and individual flexibility rather than simply equal pay. There are other factors. These two are not mutually exclusive.
