Economics Minister Aryeh Deri yesterday made a big deal about the Haredi women who are being taken advantage of by hi tech companies. Some hi tech companies open offices in haredi towns and then hire masses of Haredi women, often as programmers, sometimes these are call centers, and pay them well below the average salary in the free market.

Deri is right, and these women are being taken advantage of.

That is not to say though that the women are benefiting as well. The women get a work environment and atmosphere that they desire - all frum, all female, they get special consideration and leeway for childcare that does not happen in the general workforce, they get extremely flexible hours allowing them to be home early in the afternoon, and perhaps other benefits making such work places attractive to them.

To be fair, nobody is being forced to work for these companies. The free market dictates that employers will pay what the market dictates, and employees will take the salary the market dictates. If the women would not be willing to work so cheap, the employers would have to pay more. If the women would be willing to leave their immediate area, they would also get paid more.

These women are unfortunately not working within the free market. They have taken themselves out of the free market by their willingness to only work locally in a specific environment. It really is not fair to compare a Matrix or Citybook female Haredi employee to an employee in Intel or Motorola or any of the hundreds of startups around the country - employees in all these offices are working in the free market and receive salaries as dictated by that market. The haredi employees of these companies in Haredi towns are not in the free market, and therefore the free market salary is really irrelevant to their situation. Comparing the salaries is therefore a disservice to them and to the public.

As well, one might consider the benefits that make the frum office attractive to the Haredi woman as part of the salary package. The people working "out there" don't get many of those benefits (though they get other benefits), and each benefit has some sort of value. If these are the benefits these women want, perhaps the value of these benefits added to the value of the salary, makes the entire package more favorably comparable.

And, last, these companies were attracted to the Haredi towns on the promise of cheaper salaries. They are businesses, not social engineers. They are looking to maximize the bottom line in their bank accounts. Employees bring value to a company, and employers pay salaries according to that measure. The fact that they can get cheaper employees makes Kiryat Sefer, Modiin Ilit, Betar Ilit, Bet Shemesh and others attractive to these companies. Just like many companies, especially in the United States, outsource much of their work to India or other places - for the cheap labor. If they had to pay more, something closer to the salaries found in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the free market, perhaps these companies would not be interested in opening offices in the Haredi towns and providing all that employment to the locals. Why should they when they can stay in the hubs of business for the same expense.

So, I think, yes, the companies are taking advantage of these women, and I wish they would get fairer salaries. The problem though cannot be solved by forcing the companies to raise the salaries, as the women have really taken themselves out of the free market, and doing so would make these companies reconsider their entire decision to open in such areas. The women, and the community,  have to accept that the entire package is really part of the salary package, and at the same time collectively they can take a stand to somewhat improve the salary portion of the package.

In the past I have told people, when asked. to look at it as an opportunity to get some work experience, which is not an easy thing for someone new to the work force, and to work there for a year or two, improve skills, and then move on and look for a job out in the free market, where more money can be made. Some women do that, and many do not, preferring to benefit from the other benefits these offices provide.

Also, let's remember that in general women have still not reached that level of equality even in the general workforce. Studies still show that women earn significantly less than men in equal jobs and levels of responsibility.Despite the  tremendous gains and improvements in recent decades, we still have a long way to go.