AT LEAST UNTIL ELECTION DAY IN NOVEMBER: Desperately holding on to the debunked idea of gender wage gap.

Even though economist after economist has debunked the gender wage gap over and over again (it’s more accurately referred to as an “earnings gap”), some in the media just can’t let it go.

Enter Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post, who wrote an article on the website’s “Wonkblog” section titled “Men say they work more than women. Here’s the truth.”

Paquette attempts to explain away the fact that the Department of Labor repeatedly finds men who work both full-time and part-time are working more hours than women in the same categories. Her assertion is that the statistics only show reported hours.

“Let’s start with a few massive caveats in the Labor Department’s report. First, the researchers asked each respondent to log their own time. Nobody submitted manager-approved work hours, and research tells us one of the sexes generally tends to overestimate,” Paquette wrote. “Secondly, the survey didn’t measure productivity or efficiency. Workaholism isn’t necessarily a sign of value.”

She’s right that working longer hours isn’t necessarily a sign of value, but that’s beside the point unless she has a study to bring out demonstrating that men are systematically less productive.

Her other point about respondents logging their own time is a new angle and, as with every study, it’s an important caveat. Paquette loses some credibility on this point, however, when she later links to studies showing women spend more time doing chores at home but neglects to add the same caveat that these are also self-reported times.

Another caveat with many studies regarding household chores is that they don’t mention many chores that men typically do, like lawn maintenance and household repair.

It’s like the whole thing is just a bogus, politicized sham.