Tag Archives: median earnings

09.03.2010 | Female Earning Power

Which women earn more than men?

If you are female, in your 20s, childless, unmarrried, live in a city, and a college graduate, there is a good chance that you earn more than a man in your peer group. You also represent a major change in what women earn. For decades (and before), the average working woman in the U.S. has earned less than the average working man–recently, close to 20% less.

Now, according the the Census Bureau, young women are pulling ahead because of the structural shift in the economy. A knowledge based economy with less manufacturing fuels female earnings. Also, because female minorities are more likely to attend college than their male counterparts, they earn more.

20 years from now, what will we see because of this earnings shift? Your comments?

The Economic Lesson

According to Harvard economist Claudia Goldin, the gender gap refers to labor market differences between men and women that relate to types of occupations, pay, and participation rates.

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: gender gap, median earnings
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02.07.2010 | Equal Pay For Equal Work?

Having read that “Women Now A Majority In American Workplace” (NY Times, 2/6/10, A10), I wondered how much the wage differential had changed from the 1980s when women’s weekly earnings averaged close to 70 percent of men’s. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research had some interesting numbers in a recent publication.
http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/C350a.pdf
http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/C350.pdf

1. On average, men earn more than women. Looking at the 500 occupations in which data has been analyzed, only five have women earning as much or more than men.
2. Women’s earnings as a percent of men’s: 79.94 percent (Women/$638 v. Men/$798)
3. Women earn less than men in the ten most common jobs women hold.
4. In high paying occupations, women earn less than men.
5. Examples of median weekly earnings (2008):
Secretaries: Women/$638 Men/$798
Elementary school teachers: Women/$871 Men/$994
Pharmacists: Women/$1647 Men/$1914
Lawyers: Women/$1509 Men/$1875

The Economic Lesson
Labor force statistics include Participation Rates. Defined as a statistic that compares the size of the labor force to its potential total, female participation rates recently have been 60 percent while male participation rates were close to 75 percent. Figures are for 2008 from the Census Bureau’s 2010 Statistical Abstract, Table 579.

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: gender gap, median earnings, participation rates
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