Gender wage gap, fact or myth?

Source: Huffington Post

Fact, but not as wide as you might expect. The 73 cents for every dollar that a man earns is innacurate; experts suggest that all factors in place, it's actually within 5%. So how do we explain the 20 cents difference? There are many journals written about this topic but I'll summarize the reasons below:

-manipulative statistics: the 73 cents/dollar earned by men figure takes total male earnings/total male population and indexes it as one dollar; they then take total female earnings/total female population and places it on the same index. What this statistic does not account for is percentage of population employed. Fact of the matter is a larger percentage of men work compared to women. In addition, this statistic fails to account for gender distribution in jobs. To compare income in a fair manner, one must compare apples to apples, compare a female engineer's salary to a male engineer's salary and the gender wage gape quickly falls below 10%. 

-days off: women take more days off than men. While some feel offended, this statement is a biological fact. Lost time from sick days and maternity leave are often omitted from statistics. 

-work culture: studies show that women are less likely to negotiate as aggressively for higher pay and are often less willing to work as much overtime. Again, statistics; don't be offended. 

It is illegal to pay a woman less for the same job as a man. Unfortunately it is often easy to believe bold statistics but why not ask yourself skeptically, "if I can pay less for a woman to do the same job, why would I hire a man?"