We Need to Stop Comparing Truck Drivers to Daycare Workers
The argument goes something like this “On average, a truck driver makes double (or triple) the salary of an Early Childhood Educator (ECE). Since the jobs are essentially the same {i’m confused} this is evidence of the gender wage gap.”
Disproportionate pay due to gender, race or orientation is unjust and universally bad… but can we agree that making faulty causal relationships and misusing statistics is also bad?
For some reason people just love comparing truck drivers and daycare workers as evidence of a gender wage gap. (There is no wage gap between male and female truck drivers)
Let take a look:
New report reveals Canadian women make less than men – Chatelaine
OK I get it, I do. Both jobs are essential. Without truck drivers our economy would collapse. Without daycare for my two-year-old hellion, my life as I know it would fall apart.
The first problem is that we are comparing a specific job to an entire class of jobs. Here, let me draw it out for you…
Are we comparing Apples to Apples?
When we talk about the average truck driver’s salary we are including the salary of owner-operators in that figure. In addition to the $100,000 – $200,000 spent to purchase a truck. Owner-operators are responsible for day-to-day maintenance, fuel, insurance and storage expenses. The responsibilities of a owner-operator are starting to sound closer to a daycare owner than a daycare worker. Next we need to consider truck drivers’ number of hours worked, un-paid nights spent away from home, the requirement to work evenings and weekends etc.
If only there was a more specific comparison we could make…
So what is the wage gap between delivery drivers and ECE workers?
Less than 25%
According to Payscale.com in Canada the average ECE worker makes $16.30 an hour while the average delivery driver makes $16.07. Payscale groups heavy and light delivery drivers. If we included only transport delivery drivers the rate might be as high as $20 / hour. In other words, an average transport truck delivery driver that makes 23% more than an average ECE worker.
Dangers of the job
According to the US Bureau of Statistics, the 2017 rate of death in “Educational Services” is 43 / 100,000 workers. For “Truck Transportation” that figure is 599 / 100,000. Written another way, truck drivers are 14 times more likely to die on the job. A 23% pay premium for a job that is 14x more dangerous does not seem unreasonable.
Is there a Gender Wage Gap?
The gender wage gap is real, it exists within almost every profession. Making comparisons between ECE workers and truck drivers is illogical sensationalism that does nothing to address the far more serious issue of women being paid less men for the same role.
Class Privilege and the University Admission Scandal
The Illusion of Meritocracy.
The recent American college admission scandal has brought to the forefront some things that most of us already knew.
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Sarah Brown of the Chronicle provides this infographic detailing the situation:
It’s a good thing we are immune to this sort of thing in Canada… Except we are not. While we haven’t experienced the scandal that the US has CLASS PRIVILEGE IS ALIVE AND WELL AT CANADIAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. The idea of a meritocracy, something that the Cambridge Dictionary defines as “a social system, society, or organization in which people get success or power because of their abilities, not because of their money or social position” does not apply to many people.
For me living in university residence meant having to share a room with other students. All students did. Well except the girl whose family owned a number of car dealerships in the area and had recently made a donation to the college. I have heard similar stories with regard to admissions, but nothing that I can verify first hand.
Learning disabilities are often a diagnosis received by the privileged
The Admission Scandal article discusses how fake learning disability diagnoses were generated to allow cheating on SAT tests. Within Canada those with learning disabilities may be provided extra time to complete tests, extended deadlines and the assistance of a note-taker.
After being re-diagnosed with ADHD in my late teens my parents booked me a meeting with an “learning specialist.” At the time of our consultation it was explained that an ADHD diagnosis isn’t good enough for accommodations I needed a learning disability (LD) diagnosis. For a testing fee of around $2,000 a private psychologist would be able to “confirm the diagnosis.” Let me be clear, there is a lot of comorbidity between ADHD and LD. if you have ADHD a LD is often a valid diagnosis.
Even for those who are lucky enough to have been part of a well funded school board that recognizes LD and provides testing for LD once students arrive at University there can be an insurmountable wall of documentation required. Anyone with LD or ADHD can explain how excruciating it is to fill out detailed forms and locate records.
An article in Maclean’s talks about how “the process of seeking accommodations can actually re-stigmatize students with invisible disabilities” I remember feeling judged when I attempted (and subsequently gave up) applying for accommodation at the University of Waterloo. For students with the financial means the “learning specialist” will also fill out forms on your behalf.
It is important to realize that there are barriers to academic success for all students. However, wealth and social privilege might determine how high the barriers are.
Commitment to multi-cultural, indigenous and gender equity programming now optional
The province has recently announced that “students can opt out of paying non-essential student fees.” On the surface this sounds like a step in the right direction as a portion of fees are often used for services that most students do not use such as campus radio stations. For Lakehead University students things become a little more complicated… Lakehead students pay a $94.66 student activity fee that covers “the cost of student activities and events, an ombudsperson and student advocacy and support services, according to a breakdown provided to the CBC by the Lakehead University Student Union (LUSU). So far so good…
But, at Lakehead University non-essential student fees also cover the costs of indigenous programming, pride and gender equity programming.
I find it difficult to conceive that the above-mentioned resources are considered “non-essential”.
Within Canada, we have a history of supporting others. Healthy individuals pay into a universal healthcare system and those that have been steadily employed pay continue to pay unemployment insurance. Empathy and the understanding that helping individuals who are in need benefits society are characteristics shared by many Canadians.
The Intersection of Free Speech and Unpopular Views
“Thus, After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will… It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people.”
– Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835
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Alexis de Tocqueville was referring to the government in his famous passage but his words are just as relevant in today’s society.
I have been listening to interviews and podcasts by Jonathan Haidt a social psychologist at New York University and the co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind”
Dr. Haidt makes several interesting comparisons between the demise of free play in children to the demise of free speech on university campuses.