Although my first career, as a nurse, has made somewhat reluctant to accept the gender pay gap as presented, your article doesn't bring the goods.

It's not madness to pay daycare workers on the level with welders. Risk is irrespective of pay rates. Welders earn what they earn because their work is considered skilled & they're often unionized.

Daycare workers might or might not be skilled. Either way, they don't have the hierarchy of appreticeship to journyman welders have, & they're almost never unionized.

Risk, in fact, has very little to do with how much you're paid. I drove a cab in LA a few years back. At the time my work was substantially riskier than say being an LA cop. But you better believe that in addition to earning less—on the average—I had none of the benefits & job protections police have. In fact nearly all cabbies are independent contractors & as such might lose money on a shift if business is slow.

As for the topic overall, I don't have the data or stats to properly address it. But I can also guarantee you haven't done so here.