Wage Gap: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

I'm just here to watch all the "men's rights activists" get pissy and defensive in the comments section.

Comparing the average male annual salary vs the average female annual salary and calling that a pay gap is a complete failure to understand statistics and economics.

Hey you, you brave soul about to venture into the comment section! TURN BACK!

6:42 The mere mention of Battlestar Galactica made that one person in the crowd go fucking nuts. That person deserves some fucking respect!

This video should be re titled "John Oliver doesn't understand what an average is and how math works"

If a woman is paid 81% of what a male employee is paid for the exact same work, then why don't companies only hire women?

6:48 Is no one going to notice that someone is using a Nerf N-strike Deploy against a Nerf N-strike Elite Rapidstrike? It's like bringing a knife to a gun fight, the Deploy is woefully underpowered and unreliable, while the Rapidstrike is a Fully Automatic, Flywheel powered blaster in the Elite line, it will overpower any pre-elite blaster

6:43 What the... did someone in the audience have a traumatic experience involving Laura Roslin?

the wage gap is less beating a dead horse and more dragging its rotted carcass around and insisting it's still alive and that you're a misogynist for saying otherwise.

The blatant sexism in the comments is making me feel a bit uncomfortable. 

I would have liked this to be a full 20 minute episode cause I think many things should have been looked into more

"the wage gap is simply the average earnings of men and women per year. It does not take into account hours worked. It does not take into account different job positions, or different jobs." -Wage gap button

I'm sorry John, but you have to compare women and men in the same job. A lot of those fox arguments, as much as I hate to admit it, were valid. A better solution to this problem is paid maternal leave. Also you said that in the Harvard experiment that it was $4000 dollars less for Jennifer, but what was the average for the man? Because if we're talking about a $250000 job, that would be statistically insignificant, however you may have a point if we're talking a minimum wage job. And I am not saying I would fight against legislation to get equal pay because 1) it already exists and 2) it would be harmless as long as it doesn't say something like "women have to be paid more than men". The remaining 5 to 8 cents could be partially fixed paid family and medical leave. or maybe you could post everyone's pay for everyone to see to avoid those times when there is discrimination, But the rest can be explained by unfortunate circumstances such as due to biology, women are the only gender that can have babies, and most often take care of the baby after that. So jobs that have less flexible hours often can't have as many women in them.

Actually, he hit upon something that I might consider a very good idea for job applications: leave off the person's name when considering applications for employment. Why? Because a person's name, while useful in background checks, has absolutely no bearing on their hire-ability. Same goes with gender.

It's actually pretty simple - post the salary or wage for the positions you're hiring for. Make it apply across the board. Wage negotiations at the hiring interval are generally unpleasant for both parties anyway, and it will simplify matters for hiring in general.

Well someone's a big Battlestar Galactica fan. My ears....

It's 2016 people. John Oliver is a white progressive male, I think it's time to replace him with a woman. Come on John, as a white male, you are too privileged. Do it for your beliefs. Step down and let a woman do your job.

That wage gap statistic is actually false. The 77 cent figure was made comparing all working men to all working women. They did NOT keep in mind that men have more higher paying jobs that women. And that is not, comparing the same job in the same field, that is comparing all of the women who are teachers, to all the men who are nuclear physicists, and they are upset that pay is not equal. Men are the vast majority in 9 out of 10 highest payed careers, architects engineers etc. Women are the same, but with the LOWEST paying careers. This is not discrimination, it is just the path our economy has taken.

There is a pay gap between tall and short people too. :(

I wonder if John Oliver's female staff get equal pay.