Obama’s position on equal pay for women: Just words?

Well … yep:

On average, Obama’s female staffers earn just 83 cents for every dollar his male staffers make. This figure certainly exceeds the 77-cent threshold that Obama’s campaign website condemns. However, 83 cents do not equal $1. In spite of this 17-cent gap between Obama’s rhetoric and reality, he chose to chide GOP presidential contender John McCain on this issue.

When Alaska governor Sarah Palin was named the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Obama told voters in Toledo, Ohio, on August 31 that “she’s opposed β€” like John McCain is β€” to equal pay for equal work. That doesn’t make much sense to me.”

Obama’s criticism notwithstanding, McCain’s payment patterns are the stuff of feminist dreams.

McCain’s 17 male staffers split $916,914, thus averaging $53,936. His 25 female employees divided $1,396,958 and averaged $55,878.

On average, according to these data, women in John McCain’s office make $1.04 for every dollar a man makes. In fact, ceteris paribus, a typical female staffer could earn 21 cents more per dollar paid to her male counterpart β€” while adding $10,726 to her annual income β€” by leaving Barack Obama’s office and going to work for John McCain.

Of course, this takes out of the argument the qualifications, background, and job performance of each individual … but then again, that’s not relevant to Obama, so these figures are based on his playbook in terms of how he views the “equal pay” argument, which is, in a nutshell, if a woman is doing the same job a man is doing she should get paid the same thing, regardless of the factors mentioned above.

This “Gotcha” moment brought to you by: NRO Contributing Editor Deroy Murdock.

Hat tip: ST reader Susan

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