Like other myths, this does have a kernel of truth to it.

如同其它迷思，此說法有其箇中道理。

So for example, if you add up all the incomes of women and divide by the number of women in the labor force and then do the same thing for men,

舉例來說，如果你分別將兩性收入除以兩性勞動人口，

what you’ll find is, on average, women do make about 75% of what men do.

相較下發現，女性薪資的確只有男性的 75%。

What’s happening here is not discrimination in the labor market,

但薪資落差的原因並非女性在職場受歧視，

but differences in the choices that men and women make, about investing in their knowledge, their education, their skills, and their job experience

而是兩性對知識、教育、技能、工作的選擇差異。

that lead to them getting paid different salaries.

這導致薪資出現差異。

Economists talk about people’s human capital.

經濟學家所說的人力資本，

By human capital, we mean the knowledge, the skills, the education, and the job experience that people have.

意指人類擁有的知識水準、工作技能、教育程度及工作經驗。

And economics argues that people get paid wages according to that human capital.

經濟理論認為人力資本是薪資多寡的依據。

It turns out that men and women invest very differently in their human capital, and we can see that in four different ways.

事實上，男女對人力資本投資方式非常不同，我們可從四個面向討論。

First of all, educational choices: Men, for example, tend to go into fields like engineering;

首先，教育上的選擇，男性傾向選擇工程領域，

women tend to go into social sciences, into psychology, into nursing,

女性則傾向選擇社會學、心理學、護理等領域。

and so, where men are making higher salaries as engineers or perhaps in the business world,

身為工程師或在商場闖盪，男性能賺取較高的薪水。

women tend to end up in jobs in which their salaries are somewhat lower.

而女人往往從事薪水比較低的工作。

So even though they may have the same years of schooling,

所以即使受教育的時間長短相同，

the different choices they’ve made about their majors lead to them working in different areas and getting paid differently.

主修上的選擇不同，會使他們在不同領域工作，從而獲得不同薪水

Secondly, men and women have different expectations about work.

第二 ，兩性對工作的期待不一樣。

For example, if women expect down the road to take time off to raise children,

舉例來說，如果女性最終希望有時間養育孩子，

they’ll make different choices today about what kinds of skills they acquire than if they imagine they’ll be working full time for the rest of their lives.

她們對於要學習的技能會做出不同選擇，結果將會與期待終生投入職場的選擇有所不同。

And we know, historically, that many women in the 1960s and 70s didn’t imagine that they would be working full time at age 40,

從歷史上來看，6、70 年代的女性，不會期待自己在 40 歲時還有全職工作。

and ended up making choices that led them to have jobs when they were working at age 40 that didn’t pay as well as it might have otherwise.

這使她們去選擇一些在 40 歲時收入不甚理想的工作。

Younger women today, of course, are more likely to imagine themselves working at age 40 and, therefore, make different investments today.

當然現在的年輕女性，比較會期待自己 40 歲時還在工作，因此會做出不同的選擇。

Another difference between men and women is full- versus part-time work.

另一項兩性工作差異在於選擇全職或兼職。

Women are much more likely than men to work part-time.

女人傾向兼職工作，

Men are more likely to work full-time.

而男則傾向全職工作。

And part-time work, even for the same kinds of jobs, tends to pay less than full-time work.

即使工作內容相同，兼職的薪資會比全職低。

And women tend to prefer part-time work more than men because women still tend to take on the majority of the responsibility for children and the home.

女人傾向兼職是因為女性目前仍承擔大部分照顧孩子與家庭的責任。

Finally, men and women differ in terms of their tenure on the job or the way in which their careers get interrupted.

最後，兩性擁有的工作任期不同，或是職涯被中斷的方式不同。

If it’s the case that women take time off from the workforce to raise children, that will have an impact on their salaries down the road.

如果女性向公司請長假照顧小孩，這必然會影響她們未來的薪水。

So we put these four things together, what we get is that the difference between men and women’s pay is not a result of labor market discrimination

綜合以上四點，我們得知兩性薪資差異不是源於職場歧視。

but of the choices that men and women make before they enter the labor market,

而是源於兩性在進入職場前所做的抉擇，

or even when they’re in the labor market, about the kinds of jobs they want to have and the way they want to balance of family and work.

以及兩性對於職業類別，或是工作及家庭平衡的選擇。

Studies that have tried to control for all these factors have shown that if you take a man and a woman (same experience, same education, same job) and compare their salaries,

研究顯示，如果試圖控制影響因素，拿相同經歷、教育、工作的男女來比較，

what you find is that women make about 98% of what men do, so that gender wage gap pretty much disappears.

會發現男性與女性薪水比率會是 1 : 0.98，性別薪資差異幾乎消失。

And in some jobs women actually make more.

女性甚至在某些工作上賺得更多。

Now it might well be the case that women are being discriminated against or that sexism is a problem in the choices that women make.

現在，女性受到性別歧視的方面可能是關於她們的選擇。

For example, girls are guided away from math classes and guided into other kinds of classes.

譬如說，大家會叫女孩別選數學課，去選其它課程。

It’s also certainly the case that our expectations about women’s roles versus caring for children in the household,

當然也包含我們對女性在家帶小孩、做家務

men’s roles about caring for children in the household are very different.

和男性在家帶小孩、做家務的期待不同。

If we think those are poor choices, if we want to see women’s pay more equal to men,

如果我們認為這是錯的，希望女性與男性薪資平等，

what we need to do is convince more women to go into areas such as the sciences and mathematics and engineering,

我們該做的是鼓勵更多女性投入科技、數理、工程領域產業，

and we need to convince men to take more responsibility for children and the house.

並鼓勵男性承擔更多家庭責任。

When those begin to even out, we’ll see wages begin to even out as well.

當這些面向均衡，薪資也將會平等。

But in the mean time, whatever choices men and women make,

但同時，不論兩性的選擇為何，

the wages they’re paid in the market will reflect the productivity associated with those choices and are not the result of discrimination.

薪資反映的是兩性該領域內的生產力，而非歧視的結果。