June 28, 2015 2:00pm by David Farrar

Pay gaps

Older white men paid double young ethnic women

A silly heading. Older white men are also paid almost double younger white men.

Older ethnic women are paid more than young white men.

There are legitimate issues around gender pay, and to a degree race. But bringing age into it is stupid, as people should get paid more as they get more experienced.

Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Jackie Blue said it was only fair that wages should increase with time and experience.

Yep, something those who push income inequality often overlook.

But regardless of age, men are consistently paid more than women, and Europeans more than other ethnic groups.

There is a gender pay gap,but of interest is it is very small at the younger ages – just 50 cents an hour. At middle age, it is over $6 an hour.

The ethnic pay gap is probably one largely based on education. Just comparing averages for an entire demographic does little. The better comparison is of people of the same age, same location, same education achievement and same industry. You want to compare like to like where the only difference is race, to really measure if there is a pay gap.

There definitely is for gender, once you take into account all other variables.