Though there are routine claims that women only make 70 percent of what men do, that is a population-level statistic that isn't personally meaningful. Yes, in environmentalism women are grossly underpaid but in engineering there is no difference.
The reason it first became an abused and misused statistic is that men work outside the home more. They were making only slightly more per hour and when longevity was controlled for it was a difference that was only meaningful if you were being shorted.
That doesn't mean women were working less time, they were paid to work less time. New Pew results say that gap has narrowed but women still devote more time to caregiving and housework, while men work a paid job for longer hours...and play Xbox.
Single income households declined in the last two generations. Some of that was women wanting to work more and no longer feeling societal pressure to stay home, but a lot was due to cost of living increases due to taxes and regulations. It is more challenging that ever to afford a home but not due to costs. In California of the late 1950s, an average home was $12,000. Today that corresponds to just over $120,000. Yet you will have a hard time finding a home for that price. Regulations covering everything from how much water needs to go into the Pacific Ocean to how much we all have to pay to subsidize solar panels and electric cars have boosted the median home price to over $735,000 - 700% more than inflation.
The only way to cover what used to be done by one earner is with two, and we have seen that happen.
Yet men still work more, about 3 hours per week each week. Yet they also play more, 4 hours per week. Women do far more housekeeping and caregiving.
So the gender pay gap has narrowed and the overall hours spent in activities is about the same, but for women those activities are doing 40 percent more of the domestic chores.
