Why do women earn less than men?

Women are systemically underpaid in part because they consciously or unknowingly make choices in their careers that lead to being paid less down the line, an author and educator says.

Warren Farrell, author of a half-dozen books including Why Men Earn More, told the CBC’s Lang & O’Leary Exchange recently that his research shows the well-documented tendency of women to be paid less than their male counterparts is more a result of individual actions than of chronic, widespread gender discrimination in the workplace.

His latest book outlines 25 choices that female workers tend to make that often lead to them being underpaid down the line. Conversely, those choices often lead to more balanced, happier lives.

“Really, men should be learning from women,” he says.

In general, men tend to make career-related decisions (including choices such as what profession to go into, and whether or not to accept a competing job offer) because they lead to higher salaries down the line. Women, on the other hand, tend to take the opposite choice in the 25 examples of decisions he lists, and as such are paid less.

In instances where they make the same choices, they are often compensated the same, he says.

He cites the widely held belief that female surgeons earn less money than male doctors do. “But it’s actually a gap between married men with kids and married women with kids,” he says.

PLEASE watch the video of Warren Farrell breaking this down: http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/TV%2BShows/Lang%2B&%2BO’Leary%2BExchange/ID/2339093525/

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/02/27/business-warren-farrell-women-men.html?autoplay=true