In Which We Again Find Tales of Oppression Are Wrong

We have been told again and again that there is a gender wage gap--that women are somehow underpaid in our economy. For instance, here is 1998 paper from the Clinton administration Council of Economic Advisers on the subject. I mention the Clinton Administration because in personal conversation a 1999 Clinton appointee to the Council of Economic Advisers,Kathryn Shaw, told me that the gender gap in wages is nonsense. Shaw is a labor economist. But it still get perpetuated. And today, I found an exciting new fact about the issue & it was hidden in the fashiion section of the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/fashion/23whopays.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1&n=Top%2f&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

It turns out that "for the first time, women in their 20s who work full time in several American cities — New York, Chicago, Boston and Minneapolis — are earning higher wages than men in the same age range, according to a recent analysis of 2005 census data by Andrew Beveridge." Yet, no doubt that in the coming months the alleged gender wage gap will be trotted out by the Democrats.