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Wage Gap Increases Between Women and Men
US
Census Reports
Figures released by the US Census Bureau
last week show that the pay gap between
women and men widened in 2003. Women’s pay
slumped for the first time since 1999, with
women earning only 75.5 cents to every
dollar men earn. The Census Bureau stated
that this marks the first “statistically
significant” decline in women’s pay since
1995, AccountingWEB.com reports, with
real median earnings of women over the age
of 15 fell 0.6 percent to $30,724. The
Institute for Women’s Policy Research has
stated that the 1.4 percent decrease in the
gender wage ratio is the largest backslide
since 1991.
Though
over forty years have passed since the Equal
Pay Act was signed in 1963, at which point
women earned 59 cents to the dollar men
earned, progress to attain its goals has
been slow. With more families becoming
dependent on women as breadwinners, and with
approximately half of women entering
retirement alone, the wage gap is a crucial
issue that affects the health and well-being
of women and their families. The poverty
rate for women and girls increased to 13.7
percent from 13.3 percent in 2002,
increasing for the third straight year,
reports Women’s eNews. In addition,
the uninsured rate rose more sharply for
women at 4 percent, with the rate for men
only rising 1 percent.
The
Asheville Citizen-Times reports that the
typical prime-age working woman earned
$273,592 over the 15 year period between
1983 and 1998, compared with $722,693 for
the typical prime-age working man. In
addition to the wage gap, this discrepancy
occurs because women work more part-time
jobs and take more time out of the workforce
to raise children. However, the Asheville
Citizen-Times reports that in October
2003 the General Accounting Office released
a report titled “Women’s Earnings” that
examined 18 years of data. The report found
a 20 percent earnings gap between men and
women that could not be explained, even
after accounting for factors such as
occupation, industry, marital status, and
job tenure. |
