Uh…Clarify Please…

(Disclaimer: Salon citing Media Matters)

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, Salon’s Elias Isquith writes about something Martha MacCallum said on FNC today…

“I think most women do not want to be treated as sort of a special class of citizen,” MacCallum said. “They want to go to work every day, they want to get paid for being a professional, for doing their job really well, and they don’t want to be treated like some special group of people who have to be, y’know, given a little special handout just to make sure they’re OK.”

Colmes countered that pay-equalizing measures are not special handouts but rather simple fairness. “It’s equality,” he said, “it’s equal pay for equal work.”

“Many women make exactly what they’re worth,” MacCallum responded, bizarrely. After letting it sink in for a second, Colmes made a face of befuddlement and repeated MacCallum’s words back to her before asking: “Are they not worth the same amount of money for the same job as men?”

“No, I’m saying they’re worth a heck of a lot!” MacCallum responded, before rolling her eyes and laughing somewhat dismissively.

Uh…

ummm…

hmmm…

I thought maybe Salon was spinning this a bit but having watched the clip I have to say the summary is pretty dead on.

I have no problem with the first 3/4 of what MacCallum said and neither did Colmes. But I think a lot of women would have a problem with that last 1/4. The idea that women are paid what they’re worth just doesn’t square with the fact that many women, especially in non-union white collar jobs, are not paid the same as men who have the exact same position.

I will not extrapolate upon what MacCallum said and look at the implications of that comment. Instead I’ll will ask MacCallum to clarify what she said just so there is no confusion about what she may or may not have been implying.

However, my checked fire will not extend to Tucker Carlson. He’s off his rocker. Excusing two tier pay levels based on maternity leave? Uh, whaaaaaaaaaat?

Seriously?

Let’s break this down. It’s okay to have two tier pay because of maternity leave. What happens if she never takes maternity leave? What then Tucker? Will the company give her back pay to make up for the fact she never got pregnant? Yeah, right.

What if she works for ten years making 10,000 less than her male colleagues and then gets pregnant and takes a couple months off for maternity leave? Are those two months really costing the company $100,000 in lost work? Uh…probably not.

But let’s take this a step further. Let’s say that somehow that $100,000 in the above example really did even out the cost…but she never gets pregnant again? Will the company re-emburse her that 10k discrepency for the remaining years she works there? HA!

Time to rethink your position Tucker. It makes absolutely no sense.