Paying a different price
> The gap between what men and women earn for the same job usually gets the fairer sex all riled up but there’s a hidden side to this issue
BESIDES being a columnist of some repute (ahem!), I also dabble as a writer of books.
So it was not surprising that I was invited to a school as a Visiting Author one day.
One of the children then shot me a question: “How much does Thor get paid?”
“Good question,” I said. “Superhero salaries are never revealed. However, they seem to do just fine.
“Definitely, they get paid more than authors or teachers!”
(It’s always good to get the academic staff on your side.)
Then a teenage girl’s hand shot up. “I bet Thor and Iron Man get paid more than Wonder Woman,” she snarled.
“Yeah,” the other girls growled.
The atmosphere turned to ice. Teaching staff (all female except two) nodded sternly at this timely reminder of evil gender inequality.
“In superhero land, boys and girls get paid exactly the same,” I said, trying to dodge the bullet.
What I was thinking (but didn’t say) was this: while many male superheroes clearly have massive incomes (think Iron Man, Batman, Black Panther, Mr Fantastic, Nighthawk, Professor X, Green Arrow, etc), Wonder Woman, if memory serves me right, was a nurse.
Which means, she probably earned peanuts!
Why was everyone in a bad mood about this?
It’s the fault of a news report last month, which stated that in the creative industries generally, male stars get paid more than female stars.
Earlier that week, a study of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) showed that its women presenters earned significantly less than the men presenters.
The internet was soon filled with outrage at what they saw as horrendous sex discrimination, as were the three women in my family.
Here’s something else I didn’t say: I have spent years in the creative industries (including working for the BBC), and I know full well that financial chiefs of these organisations are heartless automatons who see nothing but bottom lines.
If they can pay you with peanuts, they will give you peanuts!
They honestly don’t care if you are male, female, transgender, hermaphrodite or a googly-eyed alien from the planet Zorg.
Academic studies repeatedly show that women at certain stages earn less money by choice – because they have a superior attitude to work-life balance.
Guys sign up for every promotion and burn out into early graves, while women make smart compromises and live happier, longer, healthier lives.
Researchers call this the “self-selected pay gap”.
Journalists never write about this because outrage sells more newspapers and gets more clicks.
The gap between male and female pay at the BBC is much smaller than the UK average, indicating the organisation is unusually successful at finding ways to steer money into the hands of female staff.
After my school talk, I was signing books when I was approached by a nerdy boy who was a fount of knowledge about superheroes.
“Wonder Woman is a nurse,” he said.
I was about to tell him to shut up for his personal safety (female teachers were hovering nearby), when he added something that got me thinking: “She’s an army nurse with the rank of Major.”
Interesting. There is no gender pay gap in the military, and US army Majors earn a fortune, more than US$100,000 (RM423,150) a year.
Thor, being a minor Norse god, probably doesn’t get paid anything at all.
Oh well, Wonder Woman seems like a nice person – she can buy Thor a drink.
Nury Vittachi is an Asia-based frequent traveller. Send ideas and comments to lifestyle. nury@thesundaily.com.