The BLS December 2014 paper I will be referencing can be found here.
Firstly, on navigating my way to the tables, we come across, on page 2, the earnings note. Stated as clear as day, "In 2013, women who worked full time wage or salary jobs had a median usual weekly income of $706, which represents 82 percent of men's median weekly earnings ($860)." In aggregate (i.e., not taking into account any other factors such as overtime worked, age, education, profession, or tenure in a position), women make 82 cents for every man's dollar. Not 77 cents. 82 cents. Right off the kick we can see how much we have been lied to in regards to women's incomes.
From Bureau of Labor Statistics 2014 analysis, 39% (approx. 22.9 million) of women have a bachelor's degree or higher, whereas 34.7% (approx. 23.2 million) of men do. Not only that, just looking at the data for education attainment, the percentage of men who have bachelor's degrees or higher has seen declines and plateaus, which has likely slowed earning potentials for men. All values in percentages, plus the change from the previous year in parentheses:
- 1992: 27.8
- 1993: 28.1 (+0.3)
- 1994: 28.8 (+0.7)
- 1995: 29.4 (+0.6)
- 1996: 29.4 (+/- 0)
- 1997: 29.6 (+0.2)
- 1998: 30.3 (+0.7)
- 1999: 31.0 (+0.7)
- 2000: 31.2 (+0.2)
- 2001: 31.4 (+0.2)
- 2002: 31.8 (+0.4)
- 2003: 32.1 (+0.3)
- 2004: 32.3 (+0.2)
- 2005: 31.9 (-0.4)
- 2006: 32.3 (+0.4)
- 2007: 32.9 (+0.6)
- 2008: 33.0 (+0.1)
- 2009: 33.0 (+/-0)
- 2010: 33.0 (+/-0)
- 2011: 33.7 (+0.7)
- 2012: 34.1 (+0.4)
- 2013: 34.7 (+0.6)
Women, by comparison to the same time period, saw an average increase of .66 percentage points, year by year. Men, however, experienced only a .32 percentage points increase, year by year. Interesting, the difference between 1992 (27.8) and 2013 (34.7) for men with 4 year degrees or higher was only 6.9 percentage points. For women? 1992 (25.0) to 2013 (39.0) was a 14 percentage point increase. These increases fall in line with claims of every 2 degrees awarded to men there are 3 degrees awarded to women. Women are currently earning 59.9% of all 4 year college degrees. This trend is already showing impacts in the earnings and employment of women as compared to men. As more women attain higher education, the gains will continue to culminate, resulting in both an employment and earnings advantage for women.
Quick point on women making gains in earnings and employment: this is a slow turning ship. If you over-correct too hard, you will overshoot by a wide margin. The current trend suggests men will begin to fall behind in education attainment, earning power, and employability. Men lagging in these factors will close the lifetime earnings gap (not "wage gap" like some people say) in the short term, but will result in women earning significantly more than men in the long term. This lack of parity will not go unnoticed by men. Moreover, significant social problems do arise as male unemployment increases, which will be a natural consequence of women filling more work roles over men due to their higher education.
Now for some fun stats: women comprise 51.4% of all management positions, 57.1% of professional and related occupations (which includes an increasing number of women in computer science professions, database admins, and architecture), 74.4% of healthcare practitioners (from nurse aides to surgeons), and 73.3% of office administration roles (clerical to marketing lead). Oh, and the percentage of women working in harsh outdoor conditions, such as farming, construction, and mining, is 4.6%. By this data, I think women have less physically demanding jobs than men. That's male privilege right there! The privilege to work outside in brutal weather conditions and not in air conditioned offices!
In 1979, BLS estimated women made 62.3% of what men made, across all races. In 2013, that number has claimed to 82.1%--again, in aggregate, not taking into account all the nuanced factors. By race, though it's a slightly different story: Asian women to Asian men: 77.3%; white women compared to white men: 81.7%; Hispanic/Latino women to Hispanic/Latino men: 91.1%; and black women to black men: 91.3%. The trend of black and Hispanic/Latino women earning closer to their male counterparts was visible back in 1979, and is likely accounted for black and Hispanic/Latino men earning less than Asian and white men. It is still notable, though.
On page 61/62 of the report, there is a chart showing the differences in earnings between genders by education attainment. In every metric, women earn less than men. This table is assuming full time work for women 25 years of age and older. I bring this up because it is a table to watch in the next 5 years. While I am unable to find the particular article at this time (to which I apologize for), there are some preliminary numbers indicating 64 men employed for every 100 women in the 20-29 age group, and women out earning men by $1.07 to every male $1.00 earned. If that is the case, the BLS table will begin to show improvements over the coming couple of years. For example, women's median weekly income for full time workers in 2000 was $493. In 2013, it was $706. That is a 30.2% increase in earnings in 13 years. For men, they were earning $641 in 2000 and $860 in 2013, a 25.5% increase.
The table on page 64 is for median weekly earnings for women and men working full time by occupation. It includes every subset of employment field and a column for women's earnings to men. Based on the average weekly difference between men and women, we can assume many of these jobs will show women earning less than men, but there are some interesting variations:
- Wholesale and retail buyers, except farm products: 106.8%
- Computer occupations, all other: 103.5%
- Bakers: 107.4%
- (general category) Legal occupations: 57.3%
- Financial service, securities, commodities: 62.1%
An interesting hodgepodge of roles and variation. Notably, however, many high education jobs showed little deviation from median. In fact, most jobs which would be attainable by women through the ages of child rearing were close to the mean average earnings rate of 82.1%. Of course, if a woman drops out of the workforce for a period of time to raise children, then women will earn less over their lifetime, even while remaining in the same job. This accounts for similar to the mean rates for lawyers (78.9% rate of earnings to men), but a drop in earnings for women in magistrates, judges, or judicial workers (57.3%). Good lawyers with continual tenure tend to earn judicial positions, which takes more time for women to earn if they drop out of the work force for a couple of years in the middle of their careers.
More women (910,000) than men (622,000) work minimum wage jobs. However, much of this difference is found in the food service industry, where 558,000 women work and 325,000 men work in waitress/waiter positions. This can be misleading, as cash tips do not have to be claimed on tax returns, simply because of the difficulty in tracking. With more women in the role of server than men, we can assume those women earn more than men in tips, which does not go into account for the wage difference, which is pinned at 89.1%. This, of course, is a drop in the bucket to the aggregate number, but still worth noting in relation to the minimum wage positions.
One metric that does come up in married relationships (ya'know, that thing where 50% of the population can't seem to hold onto?) and the percentage of income contribution by women. In 1970, BLS reports women were responsible for contributing 26.6% of the household income. By 2012, that amount has risen to 37.3%. Women who are not working are included in this, which does greatly impact the overall statistics. Women who have chosen to remain at home to raise children will lower the overall contribution by all women to their married households.
This brings us to the differences in married couples earnings: In 2012, women and men who were both working full time jobs, 29% of wives were out earning this husbands. This is a sharp increase from 1987, where only 17.8% were out earning their husbands. This is across all age groups.
Alright, that's plenty for now. Some interesting numbers out of this. We do see the wage gap in specific professions, but there is no breakdown within the specific professions to tenure, average age of worker, or average overtime hours worked. When controlling for those factors, we are seeing almost no difference between the genders, especially in the 25 and older category. I expect that to change over time, as more women are gaining the requisite skills than men are for higher paying job, thus starting on the path to higher earnings earlier than men.
No comments:
Post a Comment