B isn’t essentially a moral claim,. If the only information an employer had about potential employees was their gender. it might make sense to offer starting (NB: starting) salaries on the basis of gender. But that is a purely instrumental argument, with no moral upshot whatsoever. It is also completely unrealistic: employers offer starting salaries based
on the educational and employment histories of candidates. and offer rises based on subsequent performance. It would be instrumentally irrational to treat gender as a more important factor than actual performance. The fallacy in the Wrong Argument isn’t moral at all: it
is a logical error to treat gender as a predictor of performance over and above actual
track record.
(It may be the case that male engineers as a group, or as individuals end up being
paid more, but, that again has nothing to do with morality. There is no moral law guaranteeing equal outcomes for all. Opportunities are a different matter.).
(It is not clear whether the OP meant that one should criticise both premises of an
argument, where they are both criticisable, or whether the intention was to remind people that moral presmises are criticisable as well as factual ones).
B isn’t essentially a moral claim,. If the only information an employer had about potential employees was their gender. it might make sense to offer starting (NB: starting) salaries on the basis of gender. But that is a purely instrumental argument, with no moral upshot whatsoever. It is also completely unrealistic: employers offer starting salaries based on the educational and employment histories of candidates. and offer rises based on subsequent performance. It would be instrumentally irrational to treat gender as a more important factor than actual performance. The fallacy in the Wrong Argument isn’t moral at all: it is a logical error to treat gender as a predictor of performance over and above actual track record.
(It may be the case that male engineers as a group, or as individuals end up being paid more, but, that again has nothing to do with morality. There is no moral law guaranteeing equal outcomes for all. Opportunities are a different matter.).
(It is not clear whether the OP meant that one should criticise both premises of an argument, where they are both criticisable, or whether the intention was to remind people that moral presmises are criticisable as well as factual ones).