4 thoughts on “Jordan Holbrook: ONS to Feminists – Stop Misrepresenting the #PayGap!”
For sure, we all know that any average pay differential has nothing to do with sex discrimination. That the ONS makes this clear will have little difference on the policies enacted by most politicians in Parliament. After all, it is also made clear by the same Office that women are treated very favourably by the justice system, yet just last month in a Parliamentary committee it was mentioned – unchallenged – that women get harsher treatment under the law.
The ONS conclude a 4% average hourly pay gap in favour of men (while pointing out that this is not discrimmination). However, two matters should be taken into consideration:
1) They also point out that men commute for longer (up to 23% according to independent data). Personally, as someone working freelance most of his life, I take commute time into account when considering how much I am earning from a job. It is, after all, time taken away from the rest of my life and out towards earning money. Most people do this: just get a quote from a plumber 200 miles away compared to a quote from a local plumber and you will see that commute time is not seperate from work time and should be added in to the hours worked to get a correct average pay. Do this and there is little pay differential at all and what there is, is in favour of women.
2) Even though the unemployed are counted as ‘earners’ in some areas of government (such as PAYE code) they don’t have an hourly rate that can be counted, so do not form part of the average hourly income statistics. Yet to get a true measure of the differences in pay between any two groups, those seeking work but currently without work should be taken into consideration. (After all, if just one man was employed, earning a billion pounds a year, it would be ridiculous to say that the average pay gap was a billion pounds a year.) Ten years ago, there were half a million more unemployed more men than women. Thankfully, that gap has narrowed —leading to the feminist claim that it is unfair to women because more unemployed men are finding work — yet the gap still persists. If the unemployed are added in to the figures, at the average hours worked, the pay gap swings clearly in favour of women.
Pay gap discrimination? I stopped bothering to argue that it is not discrimination but prefer to use the feminist claims against them and show that the discrimination is against men. Strangely enough, even though I have had some politicians agree with my data, they don’t seem to care as much as when they thought it was discrimmination against women.
I still have copies (electronic) of letters sent by the Chief Statistician of the ONS to Hattie Harperson when she was a minister pointing out her Dept’s misrepresentation of the stats. As with so many things in Politics the facts are constantly ignored.
It rarely seems to be pointed out that women on average pay far less tax than men because of the combination of their high level of part-time working together with the fixed tax threshold of £11,000. Someone working 36hpw may earn £30,000py so pays tax on £19,000. A part-timer working 18hpw earns (at the same hourly rate) £15,000py so pays tax on just £4,000. Work 12hpw and you pay no tax at all.
Justice for Men & Boys 
For sure, we all know that any average pay differential has nothing to do with sex discrimination. That the ONS makes this clear will have little difference on the policies enacted by most politicians in Parliament. After all, it is also made clear by the same Office that women are treated very favourably by the justice system, yet just last month in a Parliamentary committee it was mentioned – unchallenged – that women get harsher treatment under the law.
The ONS conclude a 4% average hourly pay gap in favour of men (while pointing out that this is not discrimmination). However, two matters should be taken into consideration:
1) They also point out that men commute for longer (up to 23% according to independent data). Personally, as someone working freelance most of his life, I take commute time into account when considering how much I am earning from a job. It is, after all, time taken away from the rest of my life and out towards earning money. Most people do this: just get a quote from a plumber 200 miles away compared to a quote from a local plumber and you will see that commute time is not seperate from work time and should be added in to the hours worked to get a correct average pay. Do this and there is little pay differential at all and what there is, is in favour of women.
2) Even though the unemployed are counted as ‘earners’ in some areas of government (such as PAYE code) they don’t have an hourly rate that can be counted, so do not form part of the average hourly income statistics. Yet to get a true measure of the differences in pay between any two groups, those seeking work but currently without work should be taken into consideration. (After all, if just one man was employed, earning a billion pounds a year, it would be ridiculous to say that the average pay gap was a billion pounds a year.) Ten years ago, there were half a million more unemployed more men than women. Thankfully, that gap has narrowed —leading to the feminist claim that it is unfair to women because more unemployed men are finding work — yet the gap still persists. If the unemployed are added in to the figures, at the average hours worked, the pay gap swings clearly in favour of women.
Pay gap discrimination? I stopped bothering to argue that it is not discrimination but prefer to use the feminist claims against them and show that the discrimination is against men. Strangely enough, even though I have had some politicians agree with my data, they don’t seem to care as much as when they thought it was discrimmination against women.
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“They don’t seem to care as much as when they thought it was discrimination against women” ditto genital mutilation , domestic violence etc. etc.
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I still have copies (electronic) of letters sent by the Chief Statistician of the ONS to Hattie Harperson when she was a minister pointing out her Dept’s misrepresentation of the stats. As with so many things in Politics the facts are constantly ignored.
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It rarely seems to be pointed out that women on average pay far less tax than men because of the combination of their high level of part-time working together with the fixed tax threshold of £11,000. Someone working 36hpw may earn £30,000py so pays tax on £19,000. A part-timer working 18hpw earns (at the same hourly rate) £15,000py so pays tax on just £4,000. Work 12hpw and you pay no tax at all.
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