Non-existent pay inequalities, women who "choose" less paid jobs ... Is Zemmour telling the truth?

Women only had to choose the right trades, or demonstrate skills for higher paying occupations.

This is in essence what emanates from the few minutes of Sunday's BFM Politics program, during which the potential presidential candidate Éric Zemmour spoke about the inequalities between the pay slips of male and female employees.

For him, this societal problem does not exist.

This is "false", he opposes, without adding more arguments.

Figures allow to considerably qualify his statement, as well as a complicated argument written by pro-Zemmour themselves, which ultimately contradicts what their whooping cough says.

We recap.

What exactly did Eric Zemmour say?

Sunday, on the set of the political program of BFMTV, the putative candidate first recognized the existence of a pay inequality.

“There is pay inequality because (women) do not have the same jobs,” he argues.

(…) There are many women who are in lower paid jobs, but it is they who choose them.

"

“Those who argue that women are paid 18% less for an equal occupation, that's wrong, that's all, it's wrong.

For equal trade, equal skills and equal work, this is not true.

I have figures that prove that is wrong.

(…) We make the numbers say what we want.

"

Why does Eric Zemmour deny pay inequalities between men and women?

pic.twitter.com/rB83FSIOpp

- BFMTV (@BFMTV) November 7, 2021

What figures is Zemmour talking about?

Eric Zemmour does not specify their source and does not give the figures in question.

For lack of arguments, it is unfortunately impossible to counter-argue or confirm his statements on this point.

Asked for a more solid argument, Eric Zemmour's communications advisor, Sarah Knafo, and Génération Zemmour's president, Stanislas Rigault, jointly refer to a

- a series of messages on the same theme - published this Monday by the Twitter account @DecodageZemmour, which intends to "fact-check" the statements of the person concerned.

Yesterday morning in #BFMPolitique, @ZemmourEric corrected Hedwige Chevrillon who, using a formula that has turned a lot on social networks, claims that women would work for free since # 3Novembre9h22.

We'll take a closer look at this ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Un3nViNnyA

- Zemmour Decoding (@DecodageZemmour) November 8, 2021

The consistent, not to say indigestible, succession of these 27 tweets is surprisingly changing: the latter seem to recognize the existence of pay inequality between men and women, as well as the societal reasons that could explain them.

We have reproduced the exact messages here:

22. To sum up, the pay gap between men and women probably has little to do with discrimination by employers, but can be fully or almost fully explained by differences in working time, in different sectors. and posts.

23. This reality can be the result of a personal choice, but undoubtedly results also from an obligation for an ever greater number of women, in particular single mothers but not only, who must endure double days of work / children at home. charged.

24. The example of bus and train drivers quoted above is also not innocent in this regard: if women prefer a more flexible schedule, it is undoubtedly partly because 'they have more obligations outside of work than men!

25. Above all, if inequalities persist, it is because politicians have still not been able to conduct public policies which should allow women to remain free in their choices to reconcile professional and family life.

Inequalities observed by "Zemmour Decoding"

In his thread aimed at supporting Eric Zemmour's statements, Décodage Zemmour contradicts them all at the same time and points to the obvious: women are already leaving, not to mention the wage differences, with several handicaps linked to patriarchal norms.

"Politicians have still not been able to conduct public policies which should allow women to remain free in their choices to reconcile professional and family life", concludes @DecodageZemmour.

It remains to be seen what public policies Éric Zemmour proposes in this area.

When contacted, neither Sarah Knafo nor Décodages Zemmour have responded to our requests for the time being.

Badly paid because they do not have the same job?

On BFMTV, Eric Zemmour indicates that women would choose less well paid jobs compared to men. A choice, really? “We are very clever eh, ironically with a smile Rebecca Amsellem, feminist economist, founder of the feminist newsletter Les Glorieuses, at the origin of the movement for equal pay. This argument is an age-old sexist argument that if women earn less it is their fault, it is extremely common sexist and patriarchal rhetoric. "

"For equivalent working time and position, the pay gap (between women and men) is 5.3%", noted last March the Observatory of inequalities, based on figures from INSEE . “This difference,

remains unexplained by INSEE. It results in part from discrimination and perhaps other factors not measured here, which remain to be defined, continues the Observatory. This is the figure that comes closest to a measure of wage discrimination, of different treatment, only according to the sex of the people. "

This difference in figures between the salaries of men and women does not take into account an important thing: the trades practiced by men and women are not the same.

"Attention: it is an average, all ages and all professions combined", warns the observatory.

This gap, unstoppable as it is linked to a fact inherent in society, does not prevent certain factual findings.

Among them, it should be noted that 8 out of 10 people on part-time contracts are women.

A matter of choice, according to Éric Zemmour.

“The half-time and the third-time are not choices, answers Rebecca Amsellem.

These elements are constrained because women have to take more care of young children and dependent parents.

"

To read also "Women with Zemmour": behind this slogan, what opinion polls say

Another problem: the most feminized sectors are less well paid.

A finding that validates Eric Zemmour's statement that "(women) do not have the same jobs" as men.

“Women are effectively less choosing engineering and digital technology,” concedes Rebecca Amsellem, far from agreeing with Eric Zemmour on the question of choice.

The economist, she points to an "internalized sexism".

And for that to change, patience.

"There are a lot of things put in place on this," she observes.

But their effect will, at best, only be felt in a few years.

"The law says that women and men must earn the same"

"For me what is relevant is that there are global inequalities", comments for her part Anne Eydoux, lecturer in economics at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (Cnam) and member of the appalled Economists.

Because in the law, these inequalities, whatever they are, do not have to exist.

“The law says that women and men must earn the same not for equal work but for work of equal value,” notes Anne Eydoux.

Read also Zemmour wants to return to parity

An important nuance which leads to "comparing jobs which are a little different within the same company, namely very feminized jobs and jobs more occupied by men" on one condition: that "those who hold them have the right to same level of studies, the same level of responsibility, of skills, ”explains the economist.

And Anne Eydoux evoked the example of a French HRD who had taken her employer to court to denounce the fact that she was earning less than the marketing strategy manager, who worked at an equal level of responsibility.

“She won her case,” she recalls.

When we start to compare comparable positions, we see that either the responsibilities of women or their educational levels are less recognized.

"