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one reported in America by the American Association of University Women, is predicated on faulty methodology resulting in very misleading conclusions.

The statistics are based on a raw average of men's and women's income. Thus a female file clerk who works forty hours a week is averaged in with a male chemical engineer who works fifty-five hours a week.

Pay difference, yes. Gender based discrimination, no. And it is convincing of why the legislation failed to impact the alleged gap in pay.

Until we make laws that force women to pursue different career choices, they will never earn what men do. Calling that discrimination is a duck and fade on the real issues.

Not that it would pay any company to practice such discrimination in the first place. If women were really paid only .77-cents for every dollar paid to men for the same work, as the AAUW erroneously concludes, the wise entrepreneur would only hire women.

"I hope my competitors discriminate," says Kaplan. "I want my competitors to discriminate because they will go out of business."

For companies fighting for the competitive edge, the only bottom line is the bottom line. The reality is that pay discrimination adds to the cost of doing business. Whether that happens as a result of gender bias or legal imposition doesn't make any difference.

If some companies are still foolish enough to pay women less for the same work, their increased costs and legal vulnerabilities already in place will hinder their ability to compete. Mimicking that same foolishness at the level of government is not an answer.

And speaking of answers, they tend to make a lot more sense when we are asking the right questions.

Learn more about this author, Paul Elam.
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