Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Next "Equal Occupational Fatality Day" in 2021


Yesterday was Equal Pay Day, which supposedly represents how far into 2012 the average woman has to work to make the same pay that the average man earned in 2011. The National Committee on Pay Equity started Equal Pay Day in 1996 as “a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages.”

In 2010, I created “Equal Occupational Fatality Day” on the Enterprise Blog and started an annual tradition:
Inspired by Equal Pay Day, and in recognition of the significant gender differences in workplace deaths, let me propose the creation of “Equal Occupational Fatality Day.” That date symbolizes how long women will have to work before they experience the same loss of life from work-related deaths that men experienced in a given year. Because most women work in much safer occupations than men, they must work longer than men to experience the same number of occupational fatalities.  Equal Occupational Fatality Day is being originated to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s occupational deaths, and bring awareness to the fact that closing the pay gap would also close the work-related death gap and expose thousands of women to occupational fatalities each year.
Now that another year has passed, and with new data on occupational fatalities from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I hereby declare that the next “Equal Occupational Fatality Day” will occur on October 11, 2021. In 2010 (the most recent year available), 4,192 men died from fatal injuries while working compared to only 355 women (see chart below), so that women would have to work for almost the next decade to experience the same loss of life on the job as men in just one year.

Read more here at The Enterprise Blog

12 Comments:

At 4/18/2012 6:50 PM, Blogger kleht said...

Actually, comparing 4,192 male occupational deaths with 355 female occupational deaths is not a valid way to compare equity pay between the genders. It is reasonable for those in hazardous jobs to get extra pay, but not to the extent of 4,192/355. More like 75,004,192/75,000,355.

"Women would have to work for almost the next decade to experience the same loss of life on the job as men in just one year". This statement is valid as it stands. But making such a statement in relation to "equity in pay" is like comparing apples to oranges. It's amazing how statistics can be used to emphasize a belief, no matter how irrelevant.

 
At 4/18/2012 6:56 PM, Blogger GeneHayward said...

If you want to read some REAL drivel, go to their FAQ page at the link below. Not sure where to start---with their ideas or with their juvenile notion of the workplace....

http://www.pay-equity.org/info-Q&A.html

 
At 4/18/2012 7:30 PM, Blogger Methinks said...

Thanks for the link, Gene. Couldn't finish reading it because the first Q&A irritated me so much I wanted to gnaw my own eyes out of my skull to ensure I never have to see it again.

Is that thing a publication of the trial bar?

 
At 4/18/2012 8:52 PM, Blogger Aiken_Bob said...

@Kleht -- I think the apple to oranges is when you compare male/female wages -- When a real comparison is made the gap is very very small. What the equal dead day is only pointing how stupid the equal pay argument has always been.
@methinks -- I also couldn't get pass the first item -- the scary part is that lots of folks believe this.

 
At 4/18/2012 10:43 PM, Blogger JakeW said...

The Q&A's at the link truly are aggravating. In agreement with Aiken_Bob, I think the point of Mr. Perry's Equal Occupational Fatality Day is to draw a similarity in the ridiculousness with Equity Pay Day. Equity Pay Day supporters are crying discrimination against against women, well Perry is crying discrimination against men with his Fatality Day. Men are clearly being unfairly chosen to die on the job compared to women. I personally will not rest until men and women die at the same rates. In fact, I'm writing my congressman now.

 
At 4/18/2012 11:37 PM, Blogger Benjamin Cole said...

Let's see, results equals bias, so why are so many men in prison?

And why do men pay higher auto-insurance rates?

And the NBA has all-male teams, mostly of blacks. Really--are they trying to win or something?

 
At 4/19/2012 12:12 AM, Blogger kmg said...

The 'pay gap' lie is so ignorant that it is pretty much a great way to filter someone for basic IQ and real-world awareness.

Anyone who believes women are underpaid relative to output produced, has never actually worked in a job that is measured on productivity.

I wish I could ask this question in interviews, so as to immediately weed out people who believe it. A belief in the 'pay gap' lie reveals tons of other things about the likely caliber of that person as an employee.

 
At 4/19/2012 12:14 AM, Blogger kmg said...

If women were truly underpaid relative to men, why don't women simply form companies that hire other women, and thrash all their competition.

Also, are we to believe that every male CEO and Board of Directors is so sexist that they would forego billions in profit, just to be sexist?

 
At 4/19/2012 7:02 AM, Blogger Moe said...

If women really cared - they would die more in the workplace!

 
At 4/19/2012 7:31 AM, Blogger juandos said...

"If women really cared - they would die more in the workplace!"...

LMAO!

moe! moe! moe!

No NOW button for you boy!

 
At 4/19/2012 9:06 PM, Blogger Mace said...

"Actually, comparing 4,192 male occupational deaths with 355 female occupational deaths is not a valid way to compare equity pay between the genders."

This is the most nonsensical piece of reasoning that I've seen on the Internet in quite a long time.

 
At 4/20/2012 2:14 PM, Blogger RileyD, nwJ said...

Come on Mace, you can do better than that. Tell us WHY this information is nonsensical.

 

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