even though I in no way support Obama..I do, however, support math.

I’ve read this article in a couple of different places, and no one has pointed out one key factor in the article.
The figures quoted represent the “median” salary, and not an average (mean). A median is a number that reflects a midpoint in individual items in a set, for example, in the set of numbers 2,6,7,10, 15, 22, and 30 the median of that set is “10″, as half the numbers are below 10, and half are above 10. The “mean” or “average of that set of numbers, however, is 13.1. So, the story, while interesting, may be misleading statistically, by not including means, along with median values. It simply means that in the two sets of numbers, half the women make below $60K and half make above $60K, and half the men make below $71k and half make above $71K.
First, we don’t know how many men or women are represented in the sample, nor do we know the job descriptions. A larger number of women in clerical/support positions can skew that mean number lower. Or a smaller sample of men, some of whom may be in leadership positions can skew the men’s median number higher.
I understand the optics this story provides, but math and science really should take precedence in stories like this.