Valerie Jarrett, a senior Obama adviser, says: In 1963, when the first “equal pay” law was enacted, “women earned 59 cents for every dollar earned by a man,” and “nearly 50 years later, the wage gap has narrowed by only 18 cents,” so “women are still paid only 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man—and are paid less than men even when they have similar levels of experience and education.”

Well. Women were 49.7 percent of the workforce in August. Because the economic slump hit construction and manufacturing harder than government and health care, which employ more women, by November women may be, for the first time, a majority of workers. In this year’s second quarter, women earned 82.8 percent of the median weekly wage of men. Last year single women working full time earned 95 percent of what men earned. Young, unmarried, and childless urban women earn 8 percent more than similarly situated males. Why? See above: College degrees.