Extra! Extra! False Positive Financial News
By MP Dunleavey
Sent: Tuesday July 20, 2010
OK, faithful DailyWorth readers. We want your opinion.
Following is a summary of a slideshow that ran on the Huffington Post last week, with the rah-rah title of:
"8 Jobs in Which Women Make MORE Than Men"
First of all, we're not sure that digging up eight occupations in which women earn more than men—"out of hundreds," as writer Sarah Yin says in the intro—is good news. They could only find eight?
Second, each slide depicts a woman at work, with a caption stating what the average weekly earnings are for women vs. men in that position. Female lab techs, for example, earn $740 per week on average, compared to $723 for men.
Doesn't strike you as a stunning difference? Right. On average, in these eight jobs, women only earn $14.50 more per week.
The job with the biggest wage gap—of $40? Busser.
"They clean tables, carry dirty dishes, refill coffee, replace soiled table linens, etc.," the caption reads.
So then it occurred to us: Maybe a big drag on women's earnings is what you might call Pervasive Financial Delusion Syndrome, in which bad news gets repackaged as good news. The article was well- meaning, yes, but it's not going to help anyone's self-worth to be handed a baloney sandwich all dolled up.
Let's call a spade a shovel already. We'd like you to re-title this story. Submit your suggestions here.
OK, faithful DailyWorth readers. We want your opinion. Following is a summary of a slideshow that ran on the Huffington Post last week, with the rah-rah title of:
"8 Jobs in Which Women Make MORE Than Men"
First of all, we're not sure that digging up eight occupations in which women earn more than men—"out of hundreds," as writer Sarah Yin says in the intro—is good news. They could only find eight?
Second, each slide depicts a woman at work, with a caption stating what the average weekly earnings are for women vs. men in that position. Female lab techs, for example, earn $740 per week on average, compared to $723 for men.
Doesn't strike you as a stunning difference? Right. On average, in these eight jobs, women only earn $14.50 more per week.
The job with the biggest wage gap—of $40? Busser.
"They clean tables, carry dirty dishes, refill coffee, replace soiled table linens, etc.," the caption reads.
So then it occurred to us: Maybe a big drag on women's earnings is what you might call Pervasive Financial Delusion Syndrome, in which bad news gets repackaged as good news. The article was well- meaning, yes, but it's not going to help anyone's self-worth to be handed a baloney sandwich all dolled up.
Let's call a spade a shovel already. We'd like you to re-title this story. Submit your suggestions here.
