So that's the gender pay gap solved then

We've the release of this year's figures about the gender pay gap and it seems that we'rte pretty much done, we've solved it. The full figures are here. As I've been saying for a number of years now there most certainly used to be gender discrimination in pay. What we want to know now though is whether there still is? And as that chart shows, no, it's very difficult indeed to see that there is. For in the 18 to 40 group pay is indeed roughly equal. It's only in the older ages groups, those who coupld well have suffered from the earlier discrimination, that we are still seeing significant differences in pay.

So, we can declare victory and go home then. Except, of course, there are those who willfully misuse the statistics to insist that more must be done. As in The Guardian:

More than 40 years since legislation was introduced which outlawed paying men and women different wages for the same work, women still face a lifetime of earning less. New figures from the Office of National Statistics show the pay gap is beginning to widen, after years of slow but steady progress. Looking at mean average earnings

And they should be slapped with a wet haddock for that. Because they have been told, repeatedly, that you should use the median average when discussing these figures. The mean is too distorted with the incomes of the 1%, and the 0.1%. What encourages me is that the comments section is full of people pointing out the faults with the assertions being made.

And as to exactly what it is that we did to get rid of that gender pay gap? At root I think it's simply the way work has changed. The more muscular male physique no longer matters in anything but a tiny minority of jobs. Thus there's no particular reason for men and women to be paid different amounts therefore they're not.