The U.S. Census Bureau shows the income gap between men and women continues today despite many legal and cultural victories since Susan B. Anthony’s suffrage movement.
Why We Still Need Equal Pay Day
Catherine Rampell – The Washington Post
Happy Equal Pay Day!
This Tuesday brings us a divisive political holiday of sorts, representing how far past Dec. 31 women must work to earn as much as men did the previous calendar year … Conscious, overt prejudice is relatively rare these days — for cultural, as well as legal reasons — yet other equally thorny obstacles, both internal and external, hold women back from better pay and positions.
By internal obstacles, I mean the reluctance to negotiate for raises or to put themselves forward for promotion, or other self-sabotaging behavior — what might be called the “Lean Out” explanation. By external, I mean policies that make it more difficult for women, who are more likely to be primary caregivers, to reach their highest potential in the workplace, or to stay attached to the workforce at all.
Some editorials tackled legislative efforts for equal pay in individual states.
How to Get Beyond Equal Pay Day
The Editorial Board – The Sacramento Bee
Another National Equal Pay Day, another handful of change on the dollar. On Tuesday, the nation takes stock of the progress women have made, or not, in catching up with men’s pay …
Now, depending on how the statistics are sliced, women nationally average between 77 and 82 percent of what men make, in part because most minimum wage workers are female. California women do slightly better at about 84 percent. (Unless they’re Latinas, in which case they’re earning just 44 cents on the dollar compared to an average white male worker’s pay.)
That’s the bad news. The good news is that pay equity is on the nation’s radar, with Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy likely to further elevate the debate.
Other publications reported on the latest trends among so-called “millennial women” and how higher education is a powerful equalizer.
Five Things You Don’t Know About the Wage Gap
Jaclyn Trop – Fortune
In New York, women under 35 earn $1.02 for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. What is it that sets the Empire State apart? Education is a big factor. About 47% of millennial women in New York hold a bachelor’s degree, compared with 38% of the state’s millennial men, says Jessica Milli, a senior research associate at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research: “That education translates into better job opportunities and enables women to move into better paying jobs such as managerial and professional occupations.”
And other editorial boards examined research that show how the income gap has stalled over the past 10 years.
Women Still Earn a Lot Less Than Men
The Editorial Board – The New York Times
In 1963, when President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, a woman working full time year-round typically made 59 cents for every dollar paid to her male counterpart. By 2013, the latest year of available census data, it was 78 cents on the dollar … Men even make more than women in traditionally female occupations. Recent research led by the University of California, San Francisco, shows that male registered nurses outearn female registered nurses by an average of $5,100 per year across most specialties and positions — an earnings gap that has not improved over the past 30 years. Other research has shown that male school teachers tend to outearn female schoolteachers.