Republican Lawmaker: Unequal Pay Justified Because Men Are ‘More Motivated’ Than Women

Facepalm

One Republican legislator in New Hampshire has a rather unique take on the equal pay issue:

A Republican lawmaker from New Hampshire on Wednesday said that women are paid less than men because they don’t work as hard or as often, insisting throughout his speech that his argument was legitimate, despite objections from his fellow lawmakers.

“Men, by and large, make more because of some of the things they do,” state Rep. Will Infantine (R) said during a speech on a paycheck fairness bill. “Their jobs are, by and large, riskier. They don’t mind working nights and weekends. They don’t mind working overtime or outdoors.”

Infantine’s colleagues’ protested almost immediately, to which he responded that he pulled all of his information from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

“This is not me,” he said before continuing to explain why women make less.

“Men work on average more than six hours a week longer than women do,” he said, adding that even among business owners, women earn less. “Women make half of what men do because of flexibility of work, men are more motivated by money than women are.”

Somewhere in what this guy is trying to say there is a rational argument, I suppose. Indeed, as I’ve noted before (here and here) there are plenty of excellent policy arguments against the “unequal pay” meme that the Obama Administration and its supporters have been pushing. But, this guy is just an idiot and, assuming he’s married, sleeping on the couch tonight.

More broadly, when Republicans wonder why they have problems with female voters, they need only look at people like this guy.

FILED UNDER: US Politics, , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Ron Beasley says:

    How many times can Republicans shoot themselves in the foot before they bleed to death?

  2. grumpy realist says:

    Why do I want to lock this guy up with two 4-year old boys on a sugar high?

  3. James Pearce says:

    “Somewhere in what this guy is trying to say there is a rational argument, I suppose.”

    Yeah, I could see it if I squint. Problem is that it’s still wrong. Men don’t make more because they do riskier work or work nights or work outdoors. (Honestly all these things indicate low-paying work.)

    They get paid more because employers can get away with paying women less. Period.

    Now the question is why….and dude is no where near answering that.

  4. OzarkHillbilly says:

    “Men, by and large, make more because of some of the things they do,” state Rep. Will Infantine (R) said during a speech on a paycheck fairness bill. “Their jobs are, by and large, riskier. They don’t mind working nights and weekends. They don’t mind working overtime or outdoors.”

    Also, they forgo child-bearing.

  5. Pinky says:

    research – A
    analysis – B
    presentation – D

    Michael Kinsley – “A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.”

  6. Tillman says:

    @Pinky: I’m thinking more B, C, D respectively.

  7. al-Ameda says:

    “Men, by and large, make more because of some of the things they do,” state Rep. Will Infantine (R) said during a speech on a paycheck fairness bill. “Their jobs are, by and large, riskier. They don’t mind working nights and weekends. They don’t mind working overtime or outdoors.”

    Nights? Outdoors? As in, in the parking lot of our local 7-11?
    Yes, I’d say that – on that basis – men deserve a minimum wage differential that is about 10% more than that for women.

    Seriously, why and how would anyone conclude that Republicans are somehow complicit in a war on women?

  8. Pinky says:

    @al-Ameda: Think more “Deadliest Catch”. And the data supports him.

  9. superdestroyer says:

    Image all of the interns and low level staffers with Ivy League degrees and great credentials who work at progressive organization and are forced to search through everything said by Republicans and pick out the statement that warrants the daily two minute hate. It is amazing how coordinate the leftist organizations are in launching a daily two minute hate. What is also amazing is no one is thinking about how these trivial two minutes hates will affect policy and governance in the future.

    I wonder what political reporting and coverage will be in a few years when the Republican Party has ceased to exist and all of the people in the media who have careers in political news and analysis have wasted years on Team Blue/ Team Red Reporting and cannot bring themselves to look critically at the dominant political structure in the U.S.

  10. KansasMom says:

    @grumpy realist: I have two that he can borrow! I’ll throw in their 6 year old sister because she’s the leader of the pack but, since she’s a girl and all, she tends to get bossy and shrill.

  11. grumpy realist says:

    @Pinky: Look up what the mortality rates for pregnancy used to be…..

    Also, if we’re talking about being financially risky, becoming a mother is expected to shave off up to $1M of your expected earnings from your life.

    I’d also suggest you read books like “The Feminine Mistake” showing exactly how much at risk becoming a stay-at-home-mom opens a woman up to.

  12. grumpy realist says:

    @KansasMom: I just shake my head when I run across someone who doesn’t think that taking care of babies or small children is hard work.

    Luckily, most mothers can quickly educate their husbands by leaving them with the kids for a weekend.

  13. grumpy realist says:

    P.S. and parenting is definitely NOT a 40 hr work week. This guy is an idiot.

  14. Tillman says:

    @grumpy realist:

    I’d also suggest you read books like “The Feminine Mistake” showing exactly how much at risk becoming a stay-at-home-mom opens a woman up to.

    The now-defunct Sklar brothers vehicle The United Stats of America said in their Death episode how most things that you fear dying from (like snakes and plane crashes) are hideously unlikely to kill you, while in-home accidents and infections kill way more people per year.

  15. Pinky says:

    @grumpy realist: You missed my point. I’m not saying that women aren’t brave, or that they don’t work hard. I’m saying that they don’t on average prioritize earning money the way that men do.

  16. ernieyeball says:

    @grumpy realist: This guy is an idiot.

    Why do you give him that much credit?
    ——–
    Rep. Will Infantine…New Oxford American Dictionary-infantine infantile… childish.
    If the shoe fits…

  17. An Interested Party says:

    I’m saying that they don’t on average prioritize earning money the way that men do.

    Ahh, so it’s their fault that they make less then men do…

  18. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Pinky: Or like I said, men for the most part, just forgo that whole pregnancy thing.

  19. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: Maybe I should point out that I am saying that women, by and large, get “stuck” with that whole child rearing thing. 40 hrs per week my ass… Kids cut into that whether one likes it or not. And if the boss has to wonder whether one is going to put in the extra hours or wipe little Johnny’s runny nose…

    I can tell you from personal experience that construction at the very least, is not single-parent friendly.

  20. KansasMom says:

    @Pinky: What does that even mean? On average, in fact in general, most households have two earners, mine does. Not because we are all greed heads who prioritize money over family, but because it is absolutely necessary to live even a lower middle class life. My husband would love to be a stay at home dad and is temperamentally more suited to it than I am but we just can’t afford it. I would argue that men today are actually more inclined to be involved with their kids and families to a much greater extent than previous generations. That they can’t afford to is not a values judgement on their priorities.
    (BTW, I’m an RN, my husband is a carpenter. We earn roughly the same per hour, but I work all year, even when the weather is crappy. I guess he “prioritized” earning more money by supporting me while I went to nursing school.)

  21. Kari Q says:

    That Republican outreach to women is working great. I can feel the love they have for me and my fellow females, how they really “get” us. How we hate having enough money to pay our mortgage, buy food, keep the electricity on, and how completely pointless we think it is to save for retirement since there is no way we will live longer than the men in our lives.

    Yep. That man really understands women.

  22. anjin-san says:

    @ Pinky

    I’m not saying that women aren’t brave, or that they don’t work hard. I’m saying that they don’t on average prioritize earning money the way that men do.

    Maybe you can get a tshirt made that says “my experience with women is limited”

    I watched my mother battle her way into the workforce when it was still a somewhat novel thing for a woman to do. I see how hard my wife, and countless other women I know/have known work. What utter crap this is.

  23. anjin-san says:

    @ KansasMom

    Look, the little ladies just ain’t motivated the way menfolk are. Nothing agin ’em, it’s just the way God wants things. Will you go bake me some cookies now?

  24. stonetools says:

    The basic argument of this guy is actually the same as Doug’s argument on the thread he references in his last paragarph. It is that the purported pay gap is really due to the choices of women. If women would just go into demanding occupations, work longer hours, and above all not have children, the pay gap would disappear. Despite Doug’s facepalm, the legislator’s argument is just a cruder, bigoted version of tte argument Doug made, and the policy recommendation is the same: that the government can and should do nothing to help narrow the pay gap. I’ll just repost one of my posts to the thread:

    I predict that conservatives are going to have a continuing problem with women, based on Doug’s response. His response has been to jump on one line of the President’s argument that we should do something about the continuing wage discrimination against women, smugly assert that “See? The problem isn’t so bad” and then imply that we should do nothing. That’s not a sufficient response, and women aren’t stupid. They’re going to know that’s not a sufficient response.
    There’s no magic bullet to the problem, and maybe women in high status professions can’t “have it all”. ( Neither can men, these days). But there are SOME things that can be done, as noted above ( paid parental leave, flex time, provision of on site day care, universal prekindergarten. I would add job sharing and offering telework options). All of that sounds like a heck of a lot that can be done. The party that promotes such options is that the party that can and should get women’s votes.

    Mr. Infantino’s statements just confirm my beliefs on this point. I honestly don’t know why any intelligent working woman would vote Republican, unless they are rich (or the wives of rich men).

  25. Pinky says:

    @KansasMom and others: On first glance, women earn 77% of what men do. Adjusting for experience, profession, hours worked, et cetera, women earn somewhere around 92-95% of what men do. I don’t know if that remaining portion is due to sexism or due to some other factor we haven’t adjusted for; I don’t know if the government can close the remaining gap without causing more damage through compliance and litigation costs. I do know that the bulk of that 23% gap can be explained by a fair labor market. That’s not to discredit the hard-working women of the past and present. It’s a statement of fact.

    We all claim to want honest politicians, but when a politician says something truthful we call him a sexist. Or, arguably worse, we approach his statement as image consultants, ignoring the content of the comment completely.

  26. Pinky says:

    @Pinky: OK, not to do that thing that the guy does whose name I can’t remember, but if anyone downvoted/downvotes the above comment, could you please explain why?

  27. grumpy realist says:

    @Pinky: Have you had and raised a child? If not, then don’t be so facile with your throwing around of “choice.”

    Choice isn’t choice when the culture is set up to push you into it. If you’re female, you get nagged at, day in and day out, to have and raise children, asked “why don’t you have any kids?”, told that you’re “not a real woman because you don’t have kids”, and then, when you say you don’t want kids, get told “oh, you’ll change your mind when you get older, dearie.”

    (I didn’t punch the sweet little grandmotherly figure who said the last, but god was I tempted to.)

    “Choice” isn’t choice when the entire damn economic system is set up on the assumption that people will spend 50 hours a week nose to the grindstone in the office and leave the task of running the family unit to Someone Else. Someone else can pick up the groceries, the kids from daycare, take the kids to the doctor when they get sick. No, we won’t allow flex-time. No, we won’t allow part-time work. No, we won’t allow you to telecommute. We’re going to make it damn impossible for you to work and have kids and then, when you throw up your hands in exasperation and quit, we’re going to blame your “choice” on you.

  28. grumpy realist says:

    P.S. Basically, childraising and the extra sacrifices (financially, to one’s career) that the caretaking parent makes is a tax that the U.S. seems perfectly happy to shove off on a sizable percentage of its population while continuing to insist that the country gets absolutely no benefit from any of that uncompensated labor. Ditto for ALL unpaid caretaking labour, by the way. It’s considered “women’s work”, something they’re supposed to do “because they like it/are suited for it” and heaven forefend that we ever compensate them for any of it.

    From the very beginning, the measure of GNP has left out the value of the above, which means most of our economic statistics are worthless.

  29. KansasMom says:

    @Pinky: I down voted you because you referred to what the guy said as “truthful.” He talked about men being willing to work nights and weekends, while women weren’t. Just flat wrong. I mentioned I’m an RN, well hospitals, nursing homes etc are all open and staffed by nurses 24/7. Nursing is a field that is still majority female so who do you think is pulling the 6p to 6a shift on a Saturday night? I worked Easter Sunday and didn’t get paid extra to do it. He also mentions the work men do is usually more physically demanding. So what? I can’t help the fact that my husband weighs 100 pounds more than I do and is therefore more suited to heavy lifting. But on the other hand, I can’t even describe some of the procedures that I perform every day without making him actually nauseous. So he’s, once again, wrong. I realize I’m arguing from anecdote, but I doubt I’m the only woman who takes puke detail most of the time

  30. Rob in CT says:

    @grumpy realist:

    And it starts really, really young.

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/04/24/allowance_gap_boys_are_making_more_money_than_girls_even_before_they_re.html

    But unfortunately, it’s not likely because boys do more chores. One study found that girls do two more hours of housework a week than boys, while boys spend twice as much time playing. The same study confirmed that boys are still more likely to get paid for what they do: they are 15 percent more likely to get an allowance for doing chores than girls. A 2009 survey of children ages 5 to 12 found that far more girls are assigned chores than boys. A study in Europe also found fewer boys contribute to work around the house.

    And it’s not just that boys are more likely to be paid by their parents, but they also get more money. One study found that boys spent just 2.1 hours a week on chores and made $48 on average, while girls put in 2.7 hours to make $45. A British study found that boys get paid 15 percent more than girls for the same chores.

    And this is almost certainly mostly unconcious on the part of most of the parents. That doesn’t make it any less real.

    [incidently, I googled around for rebuttals to this study, and all I found were hilariously weak “conservative” rebuttals that basically handwaive it away by pointing to a Facebook poll of parents]

    For reasons rooted in centuries (millenium?) of history, women’s labor is simply less valued than men’s. Trying to explain this away by saying “Deadliest Catch!” is really weak. There aren’t nearly enough jobs in commercial fishing or other dangerous male-dominated professions to make that argument fly. The pay gap is driven by largely non-hazardous work for which men are paid more. This is partly due to outright employer discrimination, and partly due to more subtle things.

    Now we can actually tackle this – and that doesn’t just involve politics – or we can pretend it’s all “natural” (as if anything about our technologically advanced human society is “natural” !!) and therefore ok.

  31. Rob in CT says:

    I do know that the bulk of that 23% gap can be explained by a fair labor market.

    There have been various studies that have concluded taht some of the gap is closed if you adjust for educational attainment, precise job title and so forth. The closest I ever saw it get was 7%. I’ve also seen 16% and 19%.

    But you see, the point is that this extends well beyond the labor market. If we have other structural inequities, a “fair” labor market will simply replicate those inequities in the workplace. If we work on those inequities (by, say, recognizing that upaid childcare isn’t “women’s work” by default, and so forth), then a fair labor market (which, to be clear, we do not yet have) will reflect that more equal outside-of-work reality.

  32. Ebenezer_Arvigenius says:

    @grumpy realist: From one of my favourite SF authors:

    The Cetagandans have always been a bunch of aggressive militarists. Maybe they meant to raise battalions of mutant super-solthers in vats like you Athosians and take over the universe or something.”

    “Not likely,” remarked Ethan. “Not battalions, anyway.”

    “Why not? Why not clone as many as you want, once you’ve made the mold?”

    “Oh, certainly, you could produce quantities of infants — although it would take enormous resources to do so. Highly trained techs, as well as equipment and supplies. But don’t you see, that’s just the beginning. It’s nothing, compared to what it takes to raise a child. Why, on Athos it absorbs most of the planet’s economic resources. Food of course — housing — education, clothing, medical care — it takes nearly all our efforts just to maintain population replacement, let alone to increase. No government could possibly afford to raise such a specialized, non-productive army.”

    Elli Quinn quirked an eyebrow. “How odd. On other worlds, people seem to come in floods, and they’re not necessarily impoverished, either.”

    Ethan, diverted, said “Really? I don’t see how that can be. Why, the labor costs alone of bringing a child to maturity are astronomical. There must be something wrong with your accounting.”

    Her eyes screwed up in an expression of sudden ironic insight. “Ah, but on other worlds the labor costs aren’t added in. They’re counted as free.”

    Ethan stared. “What an absurd bit of double thinking! Athosians would never sit still for such a hidden labor tax! Don’t the primary nurturers even get social duty credits?”

    “I believe,” her voice was edged with a peculiar dryness, “they call it women’s work. And the supply usually exceeds the demand — non-union scabs, as it were, undercutting the market.”

    Sorry about the length :-).

  33. anjin-san says:

    He talked about men being willing to work nights and weekends

    I was in the restaurant business for a long time. Roughly half the people who worked the night and weekend shifts were – prepare yourself for a shock – women.

  34. KansasMom says:

    @anjin-san: And why did they do that? I would guess that for many women the appeal of nights and weekends is better tips and wages (even though it usually means working harder and longer during the busiest times) and spouses or parents or whomever that are available for childcare (reducing childcare costs). Hmmm, women making decisions that are centered on how to increase their income and decrease their expenditures?Sounds an awful lot like prioritizing.

  35. Pinky says:

    I’ve been looking around, and I don’t see any stats about night and weekend work by sex. My guess is that Infantine was using the expression in reference to putting in extra hours at a 9-5 office job.

  36. anjin-san says:

    My guess is that Infantine was using the expression in reference to putting in extra hours at a 9-5 office job.

    That you would even say this leads one to think you have never worked in an office. At any rate, have fun pushing the goalposts around.

  37. grumpy realist says:

    @Pinky: Well, then, he’s a total doodle-brain. There are a heck of a lot of us out here of the feminine persuasion who love having paid overtime.

  38. Pinky says:

    @grumpy realist: You missed the point. There is statistical support for the idea that men work more overtime than women.

  39. Pinky says:

    @anjin-san: I don’t really think of it as moving the goalposts, considering I’m the one who brought up the apparent lack of statistical support. Anyway, I’m not trying to score here, just trying to figure out what the data says. It’s kinda sad that you think of this in terms of scoring points for your team, though.

  40. anjin-san says:

    @ Pinky

    I’m saying that they don’t on average prioritize earning money the way that men do.

    My guess is

    I’m not trying to score here, just trying to figure out what the data says

    but when a politician says something truthful

    EG: men are more motivated by money than women are

    You really don’t see the inconsistency here? No, I guess you don’t. Get back to us when you decide whether you are guessing, analyzing data, or reading women’s minds so that you know how important money is to them.

  41. KansasMom says:

    @Pinky: So what? Some jobs require OT, some don’t. Some family situations require the man to work the OT, some don’t. Some people are single and don’t have family issues to worry about at all. The point, which you have clearly missed by miles, is that this guy made sexist comments, that are just as insulting to men btw, based on nothing more than his idea of typical men and typical women. The fact that you are trying to find statistics to back up this discrimination is the point.

  42. grumpy realist says:

    @Pinky: So it’s perfectly great that little John and Jane have a dad that works an 80-hour work week and for all they see of him, he might as well be nothing more than a wallet?

    Figures….

    I suggest that you borrow a small child from a neighbor and take care of him/her for a week. And then come back and talk to us about “value” and “choice”. If you dare.

  43. Pinky says:

    @KansasMom: Where’s the break point, where we stop caring whether or not something is true simply because it offends us? It sounds mean to state, as Stonetools puts it, that “if women would just go into demanding occupations, work longer hours, and above all not have children, the pay gap would disappear.” It sounds mean, but statistically most of the pay gap would and does disappear. I’m not telling women that they should do that, or telling them that they shouldn’t. I’m saying we shouldn’t criticize a politician who says that if the data generally backs it up. The ultimate question, as I understand it, is whether women get shortchanged for equal work. The data seems to show that they do, but by a lot less than most people think. That’s important information.

  44. grumpy realist says:

    @Pinky: If women were to do what is “necessary” to close the wage gap, we probably wouldn’t have the next generation.

    You might want to think about that a little.

    Maybe we caretakers SHOULD go on strike. Leave you with the squalling babies, tell you to deal with the screaming two-year old, absolutely refuse to do any of that stuff until we’re paid for it. You want someone to raise the next generation? Fine–we’ll do it–but you’ll have to pony up.

  45. Pinky says:

    @grumpy realist:

    So it’s perfectly great that little John and Jane have a dad that works an 80-hour work week and for all they see of him, he might as well be nothing more than a wallet?

    Of course that’s perfectly great. That’s why I said exactly that thing when I…ok, maybe not exactly that, but I implied it in my comment about…no, I guess “implied” is too strong a word; how about “said nothing like”?

  46. Pinky says:

    @grumpy realist: Something else – you’ve referred to my use of the words “value”, “choice”, and “necessary” in quotes, but I can’t find anywhere on this thread that I used them.

  47. KansasMom says:

    @Pinky: Where did you show that whatever-the-hell his name is said something that was “true?” You mentioned stats and the Deadliest Catch (great show but no more indicative of typical man work than the Real Housewives are indicative of the average woman). You admit that you can’t find the stats on shift work. You’ve never bothered to address grumpy realist’s points about how little we value caregivers in this country, even though the stats (no I’m not going to look them up because they are freaking obvious) indicate that unpaid caregivers also work, usually full time, and then come home to their second full time job, be it with kids or elderly parents. The point, which you are still missing, is that sexist comments like these endear the speaker to no one who doesn’t already agree with him.

  48. Pinky says:

    @KansasMom:

    Where did you show that whatever-the-hell his name is said something that was “true?”

    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jun/21/barack-obama/barack-obama-ad-says-women-are-paid-77-cents-dolla/

    This site is a good start. To be honest, I didn’t think I had to show that the 77% statistic is false, because there are a hundred good articles about it on the web. If you want it from the left, there’s http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/08/gender_pay_gap_the_familiar_line_that_women_make_77_cents_to_every_man_s.html and if you want it from the right there’s this http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303532704579483752909957472 . The AAUW has a good article about it in the first year after college (I don’t have the link offhand). All of them have their own spin, but they all mention that women work fewer hours and work in lower-paid professions. I cited the numbers myself, Rob cited similar ones, and Stone laid out the reasoning so concisely that I quoted him. I singled out the one number I couldn’t find (nights and weekends) because it was an exception. I didn’t address Grumpy’s point because I didn’t think it was relevant. I understand the argument that what the guy said is sexist, but, as I’ve said, I give more wiggle room to the person who’s communicating the truth.

  49. anjin-san says:

    I give more wiggle room to the person who’s communicating the truth

    men are more motivated by money than women are

    Truth is, this is an opinion. And not a very compelling one at that.

  50. KansasMom says:

    But that’s not whatshisnut said Pinky. Anjin lays it out clearly directly above and you doubled down with the whole “men prioritize making money” bs. I know the 77% number is an exaggeration, your problem is 90% isn’t any better.

  51. Grewgills says:

    @KansasMom:

    I know the 77% number is an exaggeration, your problem is 90% isn’t any better.

    Well, it is 13% better.

  52. M. Bouffant says:

    Who is more “motivated” than a single mother supporting children? Rep. Infantine is two separate idiots.