Is the gender pay gap a myth?

Gender pay gap statistics are being misinterpreted by people who fail to take other factors into account.

Question: Is the gender pay gap a myth?
Position‹2 of 2: The gender pay gap does not exist
Argument‹2 of 3›: Gender pay gap statistics are being misinterpreted by people who fail to take other factors into account.

People are misreading gender pay gap statistics and assuming that substantial pay gaps within companies are due to gender discrimination, when in reality its due to female employees choosing to work in positions that pay less.

The argument

Proponents of this position argue that headline pay-gap figures measure something other than what they are taken to measure, and they use a widely reported case to show it. RyanAir was criticized in 2018 for having the worst gender pay gap in airline history. RyanAir had a gender pay gap of 72%, compared to EasyJet which had a 45% pay gap. The published detail runs: “Median hourly pay among Ryanair’s 1,182 UK staff is 71.8% lower for women (67% lower on mean hourly pay), while median bonus pay for women was 3% lower (with a mean difference of 21%).” However, this doesn’t mean that women are being paid less for performing the same role. A figure of that kind is produced by comparing all women in a company with all men, whatever jobs they hold, so it registers the distribution of the sexes across roles rather than any difference in pay within them. That, on this argument, is what is happening here. It simply reflects the fact that the majority of women working for RyanAir are flight attendants. The majority of pilots who work for RyanAir, who make considerably more money than flight attendants, are men. Two occupations with different rates of pay and different sex compositions will produce a gap in the company-wide median even where every person in each role is paid identically to their colleagues. Proponents conclude that there is no gender discrimination involved, as a woman deciding to pursue a career as a flight attendant rather than as a pilot is her own personal choice. On that reading, any pay gap is purely coincidental and unrelated to gender.

Premises

[P1]Headline pay-gap figures—such as Ryanair's reported 72% gap—reflect the distribution of men and women across roles, not unequal pay for the same work. [P2] At Ryanair most women are flight attendants while most higher-paid pilots are men, so the gap reflects personal career choices rather than gender discrimination. [C] Therefore, because the statistics are being misinterpreted, the gender pay gap does not exist.

Counter-arguments

Systemic gender discrimination that results in a pay gap still exists because women are not being encouraged by society to pursue high paying occupations, such as being a pilot. Even though women who work for RyanAir are choosing to be flight attendants, the fact that they are doing so indicates that women are not being told to aim high, and that women don't feel comfortable or welcome in a workplace that is dominated by men.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise concedes the reported gap is real and then reinterprets its cause; showing that occupational distribution rather than unequal pay for identical work drives a headline figure establishes that the figure measures something other than what some readers assume, not that no gap exists. [Rejecting P2] "Personal choice" is the step that is asserted rather than shown — the counter observes that who becomes a pilot reflects recruitment, the cost of training and whether women are encouraged into male-dominated roles, none of which the argument examines before calling the outcome coincidental.