Bureaucracy wrong place to decide pay

I happily support equal pay for equal work, but Jacinda and ‘pay equity’ campaigners suggest something else entirely: having bureaucrats decide wages for entire professions.

It’s impossible to prove that gender determines a profession’s typical pay rate – countless other factors come into play. For example, people get paid more when they work more dangerous jobs (men suffer almost all workplace fatalities), and work longer hours (37 paid hours a week is average for men, compared to 30 for women).

And last year 1315 women and 4340 men studied computer science, and they will earn more than the 7505 men and 11,895 women studying creative arts. The (mostly women) arts students have chosen freely – clearly people consider values beyond just income when planning their lives. This choice does, however, contribute to the gender pay gap.

I doubt Jacinda wants the Government to force women to choose different courses, or to work longer in more dangerous jobs. This leaves her with the option of having central authorities setting wages for whole industries. Well, the Russians tried that for 70 years and look where it got them.