ABSTRACT
The great tragedy ofscience-the slaying ofa beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
INTRODUCTION
Some years ago, we gave a talk on uses and misuses of statistics to an audience of faculty and students at New York University. This was a time of great concern about "comparable worth," the concept ofbringing women's pay into agreement with men's on the principle of equal pay for equal work. One ofus (Jaffe) discussed a news story which reported recent statistics showing that the pay ofmen and women had been equalized in a segment of the health care industry. The headline and story stated that this was a signal instance ofbringing women's average wage rates up to the level of men's average rates.
