The wage gap myth: Harriet Harman and manipulation of statistics

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Harriet Harman, the feminist Minister for Women and Equality in the UK has been recommended by the Office Of National Statistics to present “gender wage gap” statistics differently in this report in order to give the figures in a fairer light. There is more evidence that her use of statistics are causing consternation in Whitehall. Previously to this, Ms. Harman has claimed that ”on average women are paid 22.6% per hour less than men”. However, this figure is based on total hours worked by both sexes - but does take into account the actual amount of hours worked by women.

From the Office Of National Statistics report (emphasis mine) ;- 

The measure for all employees showed a pay difference of 22.5 percent in favour of men and the pay difference for full-timers was 12.8 per cent in April 2008. When looking at part-time employees, the difference was -3.5 per cent, meaning that part-time men were paid less on average than part-time women.

However, Ms. Harman’s own Equality and Human Rights Commission continues unabated with their own investigation on how best to provide the figures for public consumption.

Why not read the report and judge for yourself?

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/paygap1109.pdf