Why gender pay-gap truthers are on the rise
The evidence that men earn more than women is clear – yet the alt-right insists this is a myth. Why has this argument become so pervasive?
‘The gender pay-gap truther”. It is such a distinctive phrase: that neologism of “truther” sitting peculiarly against the throwback of “pay gap”. Something about it tells you immediately that these truthers, like anti-vaxxers, like Russian trollbots, have been around longer than you realise. And you would be right: in polemical YouTube comment sections and Reddit threads, the gender pay gap is already a myth. End of. Simples.
Mike Wendling, the author of Alt-Right: From 4Chan to the White House, says: “You see this from the alt-right brigade: Milo Yiannopoulos, Ben Shapiro. I’ve rarely seen them bother explaining it to their audiences, who just take the pay-gap ‘myth’ as read.” And that’s despite evidence such as the latest British figures, which show that every industry in the country pays men almost 10% more than women.