Speaking on stage at the fifth Democrat presidential debate in Atlanta on Wednesday, floundering presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris cited the widely-debunked myth of the “gender pay gap” as one of the reasons she is running for office.
“The reality… is that women are not paid equal for equal work in America,” claimed Harris. “We passed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, but fast-forward to the year of our lord 2019, and women are paid 80 cents on the dollar, black women 61 cents, Native American women 58 cents, Latinas 53 cents.”
That is actually not the reality, as many authoritative sources have pointed out in recent years. It has been illegal since the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to pay men and women differently for the same work. Women as a whole make less than men as a whole because they work fewer hours, choose different occupations, and take more leaves of absence.
Kamala Harris surely knows this but is desperate to appear to champion women and minority voters.