Let’s clear one thing up, shall we? *clears throat* THE. WAGE. GAP. IS. A. MYTH. Has that really not been made clear yet? Apparently the city council of Berkeley, California has been left out of the loop.
The Berkeley city council is debating a proposal that would prohibit employers from asking potential hires about their salary history. While this policy is ridiculous to begin with, the reasoning behind it is priceless. Members of this local governing body want to use the law to prevent the perpetuation of the “wage gap.”
Their theory is that if you are already underpaid due to your gender and you tell a potential employer about your pay history, you will continue to be underpaid. Sophie Hahn, co-author of the proposal, said on the reasoning, “If a woman or person of color is originally hired in their first job at a wage that is disparate from a white male who is paid more with the same qualifications … that initial disparity is going to be carried through their entire career.”
While this may initially seem like a reasonable line of thought, like so many progressive policies, it’s based on a false premise.
For those “bitter clingers” to the Left’s mythology about sexist wages, watch the PragerU video below, where American Enterprise Institute Scholar Christina Hoff Sommers explains why she — like just about everyone else who has seriously studied the issue — has concluded that “there is no gender wage gap“:
Even if the wage gap did exist, this problem can be solved in another way. Talking. What a novel concept. A simple conversation between a potential hire and the employer could clarify that the applicant felt as though they had been underpaid at their previous job. That would then communicate an expectation of a higher salary to the employer.
Let me clarify though in case there was any confusion, *clears throat* THE. WAGE. GAP. IS. A. MYTH.
The main goal of salary history disclosure is that both parties have a clear understanding of expectations. An employer wants to know if they can afford to hire someone. It’s actually a way of respecting the person.
The Berkeley city council doesn’t see it this way though. This is just another example of government thinking that people can’t fend for themselves. The citizens of Berkeley are not incompetent; they simply cannot handle a salary negotiation without the nanny state’s assistance.
Haley Smith is a regular contributor to The Daily Wire and founding chairwoman of Concordia University Irvine’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter. Follow her on Twitter at @Haley_Victory.