General Discussion

Kindergarten teachers get close to minimum wage here.

Yes...women are paid less for no other reason than they are female. It's a "Gentleman's Agreement," so to speak. Everyone knows to offer women less, so women must accept it. They can't expect to go elsewhere and get paid more, because of the Gentleman's Agreement.

There are plenty of jobs that men do that are not dangerous but which pay more than female jobs. Take janitors. Janitors get paid more than maids. Their duties are similar. But janitor is a male-dominated job, while maid is female-dominated. Female-dominated jobs are generally valued less (if you read your own words, you can see the denigration of kindergarten teachers, as an example of denigrating a female-dominated job).

But generally, if a job is unpleasant to do, or dangerous, it's harder to get workers, so it has to pay more (or get slave labor, like undocumented workers, who have no choice).