Wage Gap

Women, on average, make less than men, a differential commonly known as the wage gap. Although significant changes in the status of women in society occurred since the phenomenon was identified, the gap still persists in the 21st century. Currently, women earn about 77 cents for a man's dollar.

Causes for the continuing gap include continuing discrimination on the part of employers (and schools and training programs); differential socialization patterns leading to constrained choices of occupations by men and by women; differential, patriarchal family responsibilities of men and women; and, to a waning degree, different human capital.

Social and individual consequences to this continuing inequality can be grave. Women may not be able to support themselves and any children they have, and so may be dependent on men (who may be abusive) or dependent on the state. Women and their children are the largest proportion of the poor, including the working poor.

In 1979, the ratio of women's earnings to men's was 62.1 (median weekly earnings of full-time workers 25 years and older). Presently, it is 81.0. In dollar terms, that is a gain of 19 cents in 27 years, closing about half the gap. The wage gap also shows itself by race. African American women earn about 88 percent of what African American men earn, but only about 70 percent of what all men earn. Union members typically have a smaller male-female wage gap than do non-union members.

Some scholars point to differences in human capital as an explanation of the wage gap. Although women significantly increased their education and employment experience in recent decades, even for college-educated women, the gap remains although it too has improved. In 1979, female college graduates earned about 67 cents for every dollar a male earned; that figure is now approximately 81 cents. For those with only a high school education, the figures respectively are about 60 cents and 74 cents. Ironically, female high school graduates gained more relative to men than female college graduates, so increased education appears not to reduce the gap. Some analysts suggest that much of the decrease in the wage gap is due to the decreasing real wages of men, especially high school-educated men. Well-paid jobs for male high school graduates in manufacturing are disappearing.

In 1963, the federal Equal Pay Act became law, forbidding employers to pay different wages to men and to women doing the same job. However, by and large, men and women did not then, and do not today, do the same job. High levels of occupational sex segregation persist. Women still work largely with other women doing “women's work,” whether professional-level work or unskilled labor. Men still work largely with other men. Even where there has been significant gender integration, ghettoization often occurs within the occupation. For example, female physicians are more likely to be pediatricians than surgeons, and pediatricians make less.

Women's work pays less, regardless of who is doing the work. Men doing women's work, although paid less than men doing “men's work,” are paid [Page 1010]more, on average, than women in the same occupation. This lower pay exists even when holding constant the skills, responsibilities, and adverse working conditions that the job requires. Considerable research exists showing that comparable jobs pay less if they are dominated by women workers.

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