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Of course men and women must be paid equally for their equal contributions. This goes without saying and should never be open to debate. There is a "but" to this statement that has to do with the choices that each of us make with regard to our careers, personal lives, and ultimately our ability to remain competitive. Realistically, women and men make different choices over the course of their working lifes which often lead to what appears to be unequal pay among peers. It is in fact not unequal. The statistics that have been used for years to "prove" that women and men are not compensated equally are not telling the whole truth. All to often they advance an agenda that is not necessarily in anyone's best interest other than which ever special interest group is using them at the time to make their point. So while the answer is a resounding YES men and women must be paid equally for equal contributions, we must also define what this means.

Where men and women have the same credentials, capabilities, time in market and on job; then the only difference in their compensation will be based upon their ability to negotiate. Call this + / - 10%. This is a reasonable differentiator over time, especially in the higher salary brackets. The ability to negotiate better total compensation is certainly a skill that women must learn if they want to be on parity with their male peers in the executive office of the future.

At the entry level of college graduates there is a different dynamic at work and most studies show that women entering white collar professions overall are earning on parity if not slightly above their male peers. Where the differences start to arise is as women begin to leave the market after children. Each time a woman takes a break, whether for a short or extended leave, she loses "time" in her career. This time in fact equals "experience" which translates to pay. The greater amount of time a woman leaves her career to care for family the greater amount of "experience" she loses. Over time her original peer group will advance in experience and thus pay.

This is the reality of the workplace. Women make different choices than men. They also often choose careers that allow them greater freedom to balance work and life and thus are in lower paid career fields. Finally, women more often than not choose work and career paths that are not "dirty" or physical in nature; some of this is due to the difficulty in entering these jobs but

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