I know a man that is a management analyst and a large part of his job is HR. I asked him if there is a wage gap and if so why. He told me many women are not good at negotiating salary, when it comes up in the hiring process they don’t throw out the big numbers. It seems men are not hesitant to name a higher salary expectation. He said women that do speak out do get paid the higher wages.
If the women themselves need to work on their salary negotiating skills it is a phony political issue that politicians cannot solve for them.