“Equal Pay Day” calculates how much longer women must work going into this year, to earn what men earned last year, on the average. It occurred on March 14 this year, and was highlighted in Washington, D.C. with the usual liberal fanfare.
Naturally, the calculation ignores the fact that men and women work in very different occupations.
To demonstrate how much that matters, American Enterprise Institute scholar Mark Perry has calculated how many more years women would have to work in their selected occupations before they achieve the same death rate that men endured last year. The Wall Street Journal reports:
America’s most dangerous job in 2021, according to the official data, was held by loggers, who were 96% men. Also high on the list were roofers, 97.1% men, and electrical power line installers and repairers, 99.3% men. The most sex-balanced occupation in the top 10 most dangerous was trash collecting, 87.9% men.
Based on these data, Mr. Perry estimates that “the next ‘Equal Occupational Fatality Day’ will occur almost ten years from now—on September 18, 2032.” That date, he adds, “symbolizes how far into the future women will be able to continue working before they experience the same loss of life that men experienced in 2022 from work-related deaths.”