Washington, D.C. — Last week marked the 35th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, signed into law by President John F. Kennedy. To celebrate, President Clinton staged a White House ceremony to release two reports on the wage gap between men and women, and called on Congress to enact legislation that would, in his words, “strengthen enforcement of the Equal Pay Act.”

The issue of equal pay for women is still with us 35 years after the signing of the Act because, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Labor, American women earn 75 cents for every dollar earned by working men. This statistical gap, derived from national wage data, is the raison d’’tre tre for hundreds of activist feminist and labor groups. The President’s comments reveal his interest in the political utility of the wage gap.

“And to people who think [the gap] isn’t very much,” he said, “I ask you if you had the choice, would you rather have 100 cents on the dollar or 75? You would think it was quite a lot after you had taken a few of those 75-cent dollars.”

This suggests that women, universally and systematically, are paid less than men and that correcting this systemic discrimination should be a national priority. Is that really what’s going on? Are there two people in exactly the same job, with exactly the same experience, education, seniority and talent and one is paid 75-percent of the other’s salary simply because she’s a woman?

The answer is a clear “no.” Even the current administration acknowledges that the persistent wage gap is too complex to ascribe entirely to discrimination.

“It is difficult to determine precisely how much of the difference in female/male pay is due to discrimination and how much is due to differences in choices or preferences between women and men,” admits Explaining Trends in the Gender Gap, one of the reports issued last week by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. This sort of concession is tantamount to a betrayal of the entire feminist movement. Not to worry – the President is ready and willing to gloss over the good news.

In fact, he distorts the findings of his own study by saying that even after accounting for individual choices, the 25-percent gap persists. That is not the case at all. The paper actually points out that much of that gap can be explained by choice and experience and that the gap is considerably narrower among more comparable groups. But facts be damned – there’s a movement to protect.

“It is ludicrous to say that 75-percent equality is enough,” the President protested, as if someone had actually proposed that it was. But the wage-gap statistics are just numbers about massive groups of people that cannot account for individual choices and initiative. Women and men make different choices about their education, their career paths, and the balance between the personal and the professional. These different choices can, but do not always, translate into different salaries.

The President and the political allies he works to appease will find it difficult to continue the ruse of systemic discrimination. Even his own administration couldn’t entirely tow the line when faced with the facts. The problem for the President and the activist feminists is that the story of women in the work force is largely one of progress, success and cooperation with male colleagues, not doom, gloom and repression. Those who would fan the embers of gender discontent should remember the words of President Ford: “There’ll never be a war of the sexes; there’s been too much fraternizing with the enemy.”

— Katherine Post

Director of the Center for Enterprise and Opportunity