Women in work force still face big pay gap

While women’s earnings grew at a rate nearly twice that of men’s over a decade, a substantial gender pay gap persists in Washington state, according to recent reports by the state’s Office of Financial Management.

Between 1989 and 1999, women in Washington state were paid more across all income brackets. The combination of women’s wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses and tips grew an average 30 percent over the decade, dwarfing men’s total earnings growth of 15 percent.

Labor trends and employer concerns are primarily responsible for growth in women’s earnings, area labor and economic experts say. But higher wages and a growing role for women in the work force don’t necessarily indicate wage equality.

Women still earn less than men on the whole, in Washington and nationwide. In Washington, men made an average of $37,230 in 1999, nearly twice women’s average earnings of $18,750. Nationwide, the wages of women working full time in the United States were 72.7 percent of men’s in 1999, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR).

According to a 2002 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make less than men in nearly every occupation. Out of hundreds of professions cited in the report, women’s median weekly earnings exceeded men’s only in the position of information clerk.

The earnings growth indicated by the recently released state reports partly derives from labor market trends, said Patrick Jones, executive director of Eastern Washington University’s Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis. An influx of women in higher paying occupations has elevated women’s wage rates, he said.

“The medical profession is one of the highest paying fields there is. I feel confident that at a place like the University of Washington medical school, more than half of the school is populated by female students,” he said. “That has implications for any wage or income disparity for females as doctors.”

Employers have also helped raise women’s earnings, said Scott Bailey, regional economist for the Washington State Employment Security Department. In the wake of national wage discrimination lawsuits, many managers have become more sensitive to women’s wage issues, he said.

Women also occupy an increasing portion of the job market, he noted, filling positions in a variety of industries across many income levels. According to the state’s reports, the number of women working full time grew by 4 percentage points over the 10-year period, to 41 percent. The growth was divided evenly between part-time workers converting to full-time employment and women joining the work force who previously had no earnings. The percent of men in full-time employment stayed about the same, at 64 percent. Bailey said the additional hours and pay in proportion to the number of women who worked likely resulted in a higher average wage for women overall.

Bailey said some studies have found that women place more importance on activities and relationships outside the workplace, such as caring for family, resulting in fewer working hours and lower earnings totals. Other studies have indicated that women are less likely to work in higher-paying industries, such as technical fields. And, about 10 percent of the wage gap likely can be attributed to “pure sexism” according to Bailey, although he noted a gradual trend toward wage equality.

“Occupational patterns change fairly slowly over time, but they do change. And of course cultural biases also change over time,” Bailey said. “Over the long run, there does appear to be growing parity, but we’re not there yet.”