Comments on: Simpson’s Paradox http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/simpsons_paradox/ Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:19:10 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: jim dewit http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/simpsons_paradox/comment-page-1/#comment-62478 jim dewit Fri, 28 Oct 2005 17:11:53 +0000 http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/?p=12460#comment-62478 This paradox is built in to the statistic that says "women earn 79 cents on the dollar that men earn". The statistic comes from the BLS. It is the ratio of average earnings of all full time women to all full time men. For their purposes, "full time" means they work more than 34 hours/week. That statistic compares different kinds of work in different fields of people with different experience levels. If you take people with the same experience in the same field, women earn very close to what men earn. Similarly, there is a comparison of college graduates average salaries which shows women with college degrees earn much less than men with college degrees. But 30 years ago, most college degrees went to men and today most go to women. So comparing everyone with degrees is comparing men with decades of experience to women fresh out of college. This paradox is built in to the statistic that says "women earn 79 cents on the dollar that men earn".
The statistic comes from the BLS. It is the ratio of average earnings of all full time women to all full time men. For their purposes, "full time" means they work more than 34 hours/week. That statistic compares different kinds of work in different fields of people with different experience levels.
If you take people with the same experience in the same field, women earn very close to what men earn.

Similarly, there is a comparison of college graduates average salaries which shows women with college degrees earn much less than men with college degrees. But 30 years ago, most college degrees went to men and today most go to women. So comparing everyone with degrees is comparing men with decades of experience to women fresh out of college.

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