WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 2004
BUSINESS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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5
Women paid less than men, study says
By Abby Tillery
atillery@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Research findings released by the U.S. Census Bureau earlier this month support the idea that women earn less than men in most occupations.
The bureau did a cross-sectional sample analyzing the earnings by occupation and then separating the numbers further between men and women. The sample researched more than 500 jobs in the Census 2000 long form.
WHERE WOMEN MAKE THE MONEY
The U.S. Census Bureau analyzed a sample of numbers from the Census 2000 long form comparing income based on occupation and gender Only five of the 509 occupations sampled indicated that women made at least the same amount, if not more, then men.
Occupations # of year-round % of female ratio of female-to-male median earnings full time workers full time workers Hazardous materials removal workers 12,060 9.9 1.094 Telecommunications line installers and repairers 134,360 6.3 1.004 Meeting and Convention planners 22,620 76.5 1.000 Dining room/cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers 53,100 38.6 1.000 Helpers, construction trades 28,780 4.3 1.000
Wal-Mart issued a press release disputing the allegations, but declined to make any further comments.
The report came out shortly before the Dukes v. Wal-Mart gender pay discrimination case was classified as a class action lawsuit. Betty Dukes and five other female employees filed the suit in 2001, claiming they were paid less than men just because they were female.
Discrimination may not be the only reason for the pay discrepancy between genders, said Donna Ginther, associate professor of economics at the University of Kansas.
Ginther said the pay gap could be explained by one of three other reasons: men and women choose different jobs with different pay, women might take
Source: Census 2000 Special reports
more breaks from the work force than men and women are less likely than men to ask for pay raises.
She said that discrimination could play a part in the pay difference between men and women, but that the other factors also contributed to the gaps in pay. The numbers could be misleading, she said.
The study showed only five jobs in which women made at least the same as men. Only one of the occupations was
"If you compare men and women within the same occupation, and the same years of work experience, the salary gap is narrow. If you just compare the average salaries of men and women the gap looks a lot larger." Ginther said.
female dominated. In hazardous material removal and telecommunications line installation and repairs, women actually made more than men.
The study looked at year-round full-time workers, excluding part-time and seasonal workers. Income comparability was based on the median income rather than the average because some households surveyed made large amounts of money annually, skewing the average income.
Mike Bergman, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau, said this was the first study of its kind, combining the division of earnings between occupation and gender. He said the data had been so
vast that it had taken this long to compile the information into the current format.
Vicki Lovell, study director for the Institute for Women's Policy Research, cited the ruling in the Dukes v. WalMart case as another stepping stone toward equal pay for women. Lovell, like Ginther, said that there were other reasons for the gender pay discrepancy, one being women leaving the work force to raise families. Ginther also put some of the burden on employers.
"Employers lose out on good talent," she said, "when they have rigid schedules and lots of work hours."
- Edited by John Scheirman