“A woman earns 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.”Wait, are you serious? That’s awful! That’s unacceptable!”

These would all be appropriate responses if the previous statement were true. Thankfully, it is not.

I’m sure we have all heard of a wage disparity in the labor market between men and women.

According to your social justice advocates, there is an epidemic of gender persecution in the United States, and the wage gap is an extension of America’s tyrannical patriarchy into the workplace.

Fortunately, the wage gap is a work of fiction. Once again, society has fallen for another duplicitous fabrication of the political left.

The statistical discrepancy appears when the average annual earnings of men are compared to the average annual earnings of women. Collectively, men earn 23 percent more than women during any given year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

That figure is extremely misleading. It does not take into account the host of variables that produce such a discrepancy. The reality is that men and women who work under the same job requirements with similar experience and educational backgrounds earn identical salaries.

Women bear children which requires extended absences from the workplace. More often than men, women assume the domestic responsibilities of child care.

Due to these dynamics, many women seek part-time employment which pays less than full-time. It turns out that single women who have never mothered a child commonly outperform their male counterparts in job markets.

In addition, men predominate higher-paying professions while some of the lowest-paying industries are comprised of women. Men are more likely than women to ask for raises, aggressively seek promotions, relocate for better jobs and work longer hours.

Women clearly have the opportunity to succeed, as over 60 percent of bachelor degrees are awarded to women today. The discrepancy is a direct result of choices, not discrimination.

The wage gap is illogical at its most fundamental level. If women actually made 23 cents less than men, every employer would hire only women and save nearly 25 percent on labor costs. Any business owner would be foolish to hire a man.

If employers discriminated against women to such a massive extent, a political uprising would be more appropriate than the mild, phony opposition we see from Democrats. And guess what? Sex-based wage discrimination is illegal — enforced by laws accompanying severe penalties.

So why is the wage gap myth so persistent? It is because the left prioritizes narrative over truth.

Progressives vindicate intentional distortions of reality with their trademark moral relativism — the ends always justify the means.

The wage gap is another variable in the left’s victimization equation. Identity politics, forged in the deep recesses of academia, has become the most effective weapon in the progressive arsenal.

Powerbrokers of the modern left consolidate power by concocting victim complexes among historically oppressed sects of the population.

We see this play out with women, racial minorities, poor people, etc. By reinforcing the idea that society at large — by that I mean straight, white males — preys upon these groups, the left fosters a culture of dependency and then plays the role of benevolent savior.

Identity politics, of course, is a distraction. In striking abandonment of classic liberalism, modern leftists have no interest in cultivating equitable debate.

They instinctively run from substance. Identity politics provides the opportunity to delegitimize those not in line with the progressive agenda. Why confront opposition when you can discredit opponents?

A statistical disparity between male and female salaries would be very useful in extorting support under the identity politics scam. Who cares if it actually exists? Let’s create one!

Those leading the progressive movement know the wage gap is fiction, but the myth will survive because of anti-intellectual modern feminists and leftist militants.

President Obama will repeat it. Hillary Clinton will repeat it. The Women’s, Genwill repeat it.

The left will do what it always does — peddle falsity from its fortress of identity politics.