Comedian Sarah Silverman has started a new campaign based on the myth that women earn just 78 cents of every dollar that men earn.
The campaign, called the “Equal Payback Project,” aims to raise the money women are theoretically owed due to the wage gap.
I’ve written before about how the wage gap is a myth, but the myth is still too good a claim to let go, apparently, so let’s revisit.
No, women do not make 78 cents to the dollar that men make. Even the White House knows this.
The gap is due to the choices women make: The choices to take time off to raise families, the choices to pursue jobs that typically pay less (like teaching) and the choices to work fewer hours.
When you account for such choices, the wage gap shrinks to just 6.6 cents, according to a report from the American Association of University Women. And the remaining gap can’t be conclusively linked to discrimination, meaning the gap could be nonexistent.
Of course, the immediate response to this from feminists is to claim women aren’t really making those choices and that they are actually being pushed toward those choices by society and the patriarchy.
What an empowering message.
Silverman, in a not safe for work video titled “Sarah Silverman closes her gap,” suggests the only way for women to close the wage gap is to get a sex change.
Feminism!
“I realize this may be an extreme solution for some women,” Silverman said in the video. “That’s why we’re trying to raise the trillions of dollars the rest of you ladies will be cheated out of over the course of your careers.”
The amount Silverman wants to raise is $29,811,746,430,000 – or roughly 12 percent of global wealth – which she claims is the amount of money the 69 million women in the American workforce will lose over their lifetimes. Of course, since there is no 22-cent wage gap this number is wildly inflated, but moving on.
If the stratospheric goal isn’t met, will they send a smaller amount to each woman of whatever they do raise?
Haha no, of course not. The money raised will go to the National Women’s Law Center, which raises money pushing the same myth as Silverman.
“Your donations give NWLC the support it needs to end the insanity,” it says on the website for Silverman’s project.
But the real “insanity” comes from continuing to push a myth that is so easily debunked.
