The Gender Pay Gap: Not as Bad as You Think
When you hear that women make "77 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts," what comes to mind—besides anger? Probably you assume that means that, for every male salesman making $100,000, a woman doing the same job is making $77,000—a discrepancy owing to sex-based discrimination by men against women.
Believe it or not, that's not what the data show.
That 77-cent figure comes from a report on educational attainment, issued earlier this year by the U.S. Census Bureau, which shows that median monthly earnings in 2009, for those 18 and older, were $2,917 for women, $3,750 for men. Divide $2,917 by $3,750 and you get .7778—the basis of the figure. (As a statistics refresher, median means the midpoint of the data set, not the average.)
However, a separate report comparing women's to men's salaries for the same job shows the median woman earning 82 cents for the median man. Half the women in the report, whose work accounted for 61 different jobs, were making better than 82 cents on their male counterpart's dollar. More than a third made between 61 and 81 cents on the dollar. Several of the jobs with the worst pay gaps were managerial in nature or required higher education, yet the educational attainment report shows that women with advanced degrees in some fields make 90 percent of what men do. Overall, both reports show the pay gap varies significantly.
Does this mean employers in some types of work are more discriminatory than others? That's possible, but it's hard to conclude that the only factor is gender discrimination. For one thing, neither report distinguishes similar jobs in for-profit settings from those in nonprofit organizations, which almost always offer lower salaries for similar work, but may also entail less-demanding hours and better work-life balance. The reports are also limited to income, which means they don't factor in the kind of benefits offered and other factors that might make lower-paying jobs more attractive.
After poring over the numbers for a while, I was curious to see how my earnings compared, given that I hold a master's degree in religious studies and work for a nonprofit. According to the education report's chart showing average pretax earnings, based on education level (table 5, which doesn't include sex), I made less per month than both my master's degree- and bachelor's degree-holding peers. But is that because I'm a woman or a nonprofit employee? On the other hand, when compared to peers with degrees in liberal arts, I was earning more than both the median man and woman at both the bachelor's and advanced-degree levels.
The Seminary Gender Gap
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Barney
Tim, I got an idea. Since pastors use fear and false promises to control women's sexuality for their own profit, just as pimps do, maybe they'd be the experts on pimping. Go ask a pastor since they're the authority on all things. Religion is poison, the Anna Broadway story.
Tim
Barney, I was hoping that your larger male brain would come up with something more than vague references to anecdotes found in news stories. By the way, how do you know what high end clients prefer and where male prostitutes tend to work? Oh well, I guess we'll just have to take your word for it, along with your earlier asertions that women make a lot more money than the studies show, and that men are better than women at math, science and reasoning. Blessings, Tim
Barney
The famous stories about prostitution in Hollywood, D.C. and Wallstreet were all through Madams. The high end clients always prefer dealing with a woman. Male Pimps tend to work low rent areas. So one would think the pay gap is in favor of women in this profession. So women have an big pay advantage in both the oldest and second oldest professions. It's just not counted in this survey because the authors have a political agenda to hide the real facts.
Tim
But Barney, you'd then also have to factor in the earning potential of male pimps and female pimps to see if there is a gender gap there or not. I don't know if reliable data is available; perhaps with your naturally superior math ability you can provide it. Cheers, Tim
Barney
The only workplaces where institution discrimination again women is both legal and common are religious institutions.
Barney
I'm sure the money women make from prostitution, stripping, porn, gifts from lovers, etc... is not part of the 77 cents. If you included this money, there would be little wage gap at all. The fact is men are endowed with greater capacity to make money than women. On average physically stronger, larger brains, naturally better at math, science, reasoning. Plus men must be more motivated. A woman just needs to be young and beautiful to attract a man. A man must have some money and earning potential. So men are naturally going to be more driven to succeed in business and the workplace.
Amy
This article is basically making excuses for the status quo and trying to sweep things under the rug. David, all I can say in response to your post: I sure hope you're not married.
David
I cant believe some of the responses that I am reading here, or even the tone of this article, on a Christian web site. The clear teaching of the Bible is that a womans focus should be domestic, and that a man should have more of a focus on career than what a woman should have. To a degree, even in this misguided society, men are still more career-oriented than women. As much as people are trying to fight it, it is the way of nature, which God created. Where a person is focused is where they will naturally reap greater rewards. If a male employee is more flexible for his boss, and provides a greater financial return for the investment in his employment than what a female employee provides for the same investment in her employment, it is only natural and right that the difference should be shown in the way they are rewarded for their contributions. Women are more focussed than men in other pursuits, and reap greater benefits in those areas accordingly. Also, women have much more desire than men to be rewarded in non-financial ways. Of course, if the rewards are coming from an employer, they often cost the employer money anyway. Men see the higher dollar figure in their reward from the employer because it is typically only the dollar figure they really care about in terms of reward from the employer. If you are going to talk about discrimination against women in the workplace, the simple truth is that it is almost non-existent these days. In fact, there are even affirmative action initiatives that often blatantly discriminate against men who perform better than the women who are employed in preference to them. Why? Political correctness! Public Relations! Democracy! It is the rule of the evil majority. Make no mistake. We live in an evil, humanistic society that delights in rebelling against the divine principles of the only true God. Remember the famous Good without God catchcry of the humanist movement. Much of modern Christianity is corrupting itself with the doctrines of this same movement.
Heather Macarthur
All I have to say is I'll bet Lilly Ledbetter disagrees with you...it certainly wasn't her choice to get paid less.
Rahab
Exactly, Tim. You have a choice. Some of us don't. You are very good with words; surely you've caught the sense of the phrase "we white-collar women," which clearly assumes that's the norm. But for whom? Christians? Evangelicals in particular? Or is it just CT's target audience? So, why is the assumption so narrow? God's own people are not all white-collar women free to choose how much or how little we work, and/or for whom. The reality is both much starker and much richer than that. The experience some of us face in seeking fellowship in churches is daunting, exactly because of just such assumptions. Where should we go? Where do we belong?
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