Re: Page Schindler’s commentary, “Double standard in 2005 not dead,” published in The Star March 29:

I have many problems with Ms. Schindler’s commentary, but I’ll just stick to one here.

She contends that women “are still paid 76 cents to the dollar that men earn.”

I am assuming she obtained this information from the U.S. Census Bureau. This is an often quoted but flawed statistic. You see, all the government is doing is comparing the median earnings of all full-time workers of both sexes.

There are many reasons the median earnings of men is higher. One of the greatest factors is simply that the type of jobs men pursue are higher paying. Men also tend to have higher degrees, work longer hours, work more dangerous and higher paying jobs, and they do not take as much time off of work to have children or raise a family.

But you don’t need to analyze statistics to understand the “wage gap” is just a myth. Just ask yourself this question: If women are getting paid only 76 cents on the dollar for the exact same work, then why are employers not immediately firing men and hiring women? Hey, a 24 percent reduction in labor costs would be huge to the bottom line. Corporations are moving overseas just to realize those savings, and they could have them right here, just by hiring equally qualified women!

Why is this not happening? Because statistics can be twisted to mean whatever it is you want them to mean. And this statistic is repeated over and over, flawed as it is.

I am sure Ms. Schindler must know this, being a “women’s rights advocate.” The question is: Why is she deliberately misleading readers? Could it be because she is desperately searching for discrimination, when it simply does not exist anymore? Is she worried there may not be any more need for a “women’s rights advocate” in the 21st century? Is she actually looking out for her interests here?

— Dalius Stropus, Simi Valley