Employers in the United States have come a long way in bridging the gender pay gap — but the fact is that it still exists. In 1979, women earned 62% as much as men, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio gradually increased through the next two decades, but peaked at 81% in 2005 and 2006 and has stayed relatively flat since then. Some explain the discrepancy in earnings with the fact that women tend to be the ones who put their careers on hold, work part-time or drop out of the workforce entirely to raise their children or care for elderly family members. Others point to the so-called glass ceiling: the fact that men in top executive functions still outnumber women, and as a result, there are fewer women in the highest-paid positions in corporate America, while at the same time women tend to be “clustered” in lower-paying jobs.
We dissect men’s versus women’s earnings as reported by the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics in our latest infographic.
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4 Comments so far
leave a commentThere’s still a huge difference in salaries, and a lot of soft sexism in the workplace regarding what men and women can do differently. The recession has brought more people in general to the workforce, but that doesn’t mean there’s no more glass ceiling.
This is a bit misleading. While yes, there is still a big problem with salary differences, it is important to think about the reason behind some of this, for example, the graph that shows that income disparity increases with age.
Seeing that younger workers have the same pay is evidence that pay disparity is, in fact, closing. If you think about it, why would pay rate differences spike up in the late twenties and stay roughly the same through the rest of a career? What do women do in their late twenties and early thirities? They take time off to have kids. From the point they return to work, their pay increases generally (not always) at the same rate as their male counterparts, but they have lost up to two years of raises.
I will not go as far as to say that things are perfect. Many companies still promote men unfairly over women. However, things are improving for workplace gender equality. You just have to take the time to analyze the data and not focus on misleading statistics.
Eric, what you’re saying makes sense, but it isn’t true. It is no longer the norm for labor force participation rates to drop off when women reach child-bearing age. If you look at current studies, nearly all women are continuing to work throughout their life, save for those very short maternity leaves. There aren’t a lot of women leaving the workforce and returning later anymore (not to say there aren’t stay-at-home mothers who leave the workforce after a year or two).
This is misleading.