First published through The Paris News on Sep. 25, 2017. The article can be found on their website at http://theparisnews.com/opinion/article_b9ca6a9e-a205-11e7-8a27-13a6ecd5b7bb.html and was backdated.

There is no gender wage gap. I have heard from many people who say there is a gap between how much men make compared to how much women make. However, there is no gap between the two.

Forbes writer Karin Agness Lips wrote in 2016, “I spoke to a group of 70 undergraduate women at Harvard… I asked this group of college women if they believed they would get paid 78 cents on the dollar compared to men just because they were women. A majority of the women raised their hands.”

Though only 70 undergraduate women are but a drop in the bucket compared to however many there are in the U.S., this helps prove how people believe in the wage gap.

In a video by Ben Shapiro, he said things have never been better for women in the U.S.

“Women work less hours than men,” Shapiro said. “It’s also nonsense, by the way, that women and men who work more than 40 hours per week, work the same number of hours overall.”

Shapiro said women who are married and have kids, often take time off to have their kids.

I have heard women complain about how they are forced to have a child. Against the popular belief, women are not forced to have a child.

Women have the right to have a child.  I’m sorry, but I don’t understand how someone can accidentally have a child. You can’t trip and say, “Whoops, I’m pregnant now.”

“Single women who are not married are 96 percent of what men make,” said Shapiro. “That other 4 percent includes men work riskier jobs and take on jobs with a higher risk of firing.”

Marketplace.org’s Annie Baxter said working in the oil fields is dangerous. Baxter said the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the overall rate of fatal work injuries in 2014 was about three out of every 100,000 full-time workers.

“For workers in the oil and gas industry, who work long hours with a lot of dangerous equipment, it was more than five times higher,” said Baxter.

Typically you will see men working in the oil fields, one of the more predominant technical careers pursued for the income. While women will work in the social fields.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2015, 4,836 fatal work injuries were reported in the United States. Of that, 4,492 men and 344 women died at the work place.

More than 13 times the amount of men than women have died from work related injuries.

Also according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in general more men worked in 2015 in each age group ranging from 15-75-years-old. It was significantly higher for 25-34, 35-44 and 45-54-year-old men to work than women. Women ages 15-54 spent more time caring for and helping household members, which involved more childcare, than men, according to BLS.

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with a career choice; there shouldn’t be complaints about a nonexistent wage gap when the choices are different.