Is the U.S. Gender Gap Growing?
Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. is slowly but steadily closing the male/female wage gap and raising, if not shattering, the "glass ceiling" that makes it difficult for women to win top management jobs. That's why a recent government analysis suggesting that the wage gap grew during the late 1990s is causing some consternation and controversy.
The late 1990s was a time of labor shortages, especially in terms of skilled and talented employees. Common sense suggests that in such an environment organizations would tend to look beyond gender in their promotion and compensation practices. Yet, when the General Accounting Office (GAO) used government data to gauge the wage gap between female and male managers in 1995 and 2000, there were some surprising results. The study focused on ten U.S. industries employing 71% of women and 73% of female managers. It found that in seven of the ten industries the wage gap between male and female managers widened during that period of economic boom. The data also indicates that women held management jobs proportionate to their share of the workforce in only half of those industries. "It is compelling evidence that the glass ceiling remains a powerful obstacle to women in the workforce, and it suggests things may be getting worse, not better," said U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), who commissioned the report along with Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
The authors themselves, however, point to some weaknesses of the analysis, which was based on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). First, it is based on self-reporting, which can lead to a relatively large number of errors. Second, it doesn't take into account two important factors that drive salary levels: years of experience and level of managerial responsibility.
Such weaknesses are damning in the eyes of critics such as Ed Hudgins of the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank. He and others note that women are much more likely than men to interrupt their careers to raise children, and this is their choice. Even if women with children stay in the labor force, they're more likely to take jobs with shorter and more flexible work hours, a decision that ultimately affects work experience and so compensation. Younger women without family obligations don't seem to suffer from wage gaps. University Wire reports, "Research conducted by the Employment Policy Foundation found that there is no gender pay gap for full-time workers aged 21 to 35 living alone, and the gap is only 3% for workers of the same age who don't have children."
Of course, the fact that women tend to pay a higher price than men for having families is, in the eyes of some, another example of the cultural pressures underlying gender inequalities. The GAO-based report states, "Overall the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that in 2000 the pay gap among all working women and men was widest among parents. And although both men and women managers need to reconcile work with family, the CPS data suggest that combining parenthood with advancement into management is particularly difficult for women." In short, familial obligations are more likely to interfere with women's managerial aspirations than with men's. This affects work experience and, therefore, wage levels.
Yet, there are also studies that take work experience into consideration and still find gaps. One recent example comes from the American College of Healthcare Executives, which conducted a study with the help of Catalyst, an advocacy group for businesswomen. It found that, despite equal levels of education and experience, female healthcare executives earned a median salary of $85,000, about 19% less than their male counterparts. This compares with an 18% differential in 1995 and a 17% differential in 1990.
If not experience and education, what could account for such a gap? One clue may come from a study conducted by Sara J. Solnick of the University of Vermont. She created an experiment in which players engage in the so-called ultimatum game. One player is given some cash, which he or she then offers to share with another player. The size of the offer is decided by the first player. The other player either accepts the offer or balks at the size of the offer, in which case neither person gets any money. She designed the experiment so that the players couldn't see one another. But in half the games, players were given one another's first names, a marker of gender. BusinessWeek reports, "The results were revealing. When the players' sex was known, men and especially women made lower offers to women. And on the receiving end, both men and women insisted on a higher amount when they knew the offer came from a woman." The implication is that both men and women tend to assume that female applicants will accept a lower wage than their male counterparts. Such cultural assumptions, even if formed subconsciously, might play a role in causing wage gaps.
To see how U.S. median weekly earnings compare for men and women, see
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswom2000.pdf
To read an article about the GAO-based report, see
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/796/context/cover/
To view the report itself, see the following PDF document:
http://www.house.gov/maloney/issues/womenscaucus/glassceiling.pdf
Also see
http://www.equality2020.org/Women.pdf
To read "She's a Woman, Offer Her Less," see
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_19/c3731039.htm#top
To read the abstract of "Gender Differences in the Ultimatum Game," see
http://www3.oup.co.uk/ecoinq/hdb/Volume_39/Issue_02/390189.sgm.abs.html
To read about the wage gap among female healthcare executives, see
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/currentissue/pastpost.php3?refid=8253
To read about the wage gap in the life sciences sector, see
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-10/aaft-ajs100401.php
To read a report about women in the legal profession, see
http://www.abanet.org/ftp/pub/women/unfinishedagenda.pdf
To read about women in the communication business, see
http://www.appcpenn.org/internet/publicpolicy/progress-report.pdf
The late 1990s was a time of labor shortages, especially in terms of skilled and talented employees. Common sense suggests that in such an environment organizations would tend to look beyond gender in their promotion and compensation practices. Yet, when the General Accounting Office (GAO) used government data to gauge the wage gap between female and male managers in 1995 and 2000, there were some surprising results. The study focused on ten U.S. industries employing 71% of women and 73% of female managers. It found that in seven of the ten industries the wage gap between male and female managers widened during that period of economic boom. The data also indicates that women held management jobs proportionate to their share of the workforce in only half of those industries. "It is compelling evidence that the glass ceiling remains a powerful obstacle to women in the workforce, and it suggests things may be getting worse, not better," said U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), who commissioned the report along with Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
The authors themselves, however, point to some weaknesses of the analysis, which was based on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). First, it is based on self-reporting, which can lead to a relatively large number of errors. Second, it doesn't take into account two important factors that drive salary levels: years of experience and level of managerial responsibility.
Such weaknesses are damning in the eyes of critics such as Ed Hudgins of the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank. He and others note that women are much more likely than men to interrupt their careers to raise children, and this is their choice. Even if women with children stay in the labor force, they're more likely to take jobs with shorter and more flexible work hours, a decision that ultimately affects work experience and so compensation. Younger women without family obligations don't seem to suffer from wage gaps. University Wire reports, "Research conducted by the Employment Policy Foundation found that there is no gender pay gap for full-time workers aged 21 to 35 living alone, and the gap is only 3% for workers of the same age who don't have children."
Of course, the fact that women tend to pay a higher price than men for having families is, in the eyes of some, another example of the cultural pressures underlying gender inequalities. The GAO-based report states, "Overall the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that in 2000 the pay gap among all working women and men was widest among parents. And although both men and women managers need to reconcile work with family, the CPS data suggest that combining parenthood with advancement into management is particularly difficult for women." In short, familial obligations are more likely to interfere with women's managerial aspirations than with men's. This affects work experience and, therefore, wage levels.
Yet, there are also studies that take work experience into consideration and still find gaps. One recent example comes from the American College of Healthcare Executives, which conducted a study with the help of Catalyst, an advocacy group for businesswomen. It found that, despite equal levels of education and experience, female healthcare executives earned a median salary of $85,000, about 19% less than their male counterparts. This compares with an 18% differential in 1995 and a 17% differential in 1990.
If not experience and education, what could account for such a gap? One clue may come from a study conducted by Sara J. Solnick of the University of Vermont. She created an experiment in which players engage in the so-called ultimatum game. One player is given some cash, which he or she then offers to share with another player. The size of the offer is decided by the first player. The other player either accepts the offer or balks at the size of the offer, in which case neither person gets any money. She designed the experiment so that the players couldn't see one another. But in half the games, players were given one another's first names, a marker of gender. BusinessWeek reports, "The results were revealing. When the players' sex was known, men and especially women made lower offers to women. And on the receiving end, both men and women insisted on a higher amount when they knew the offer came from a woman." The implication is that both men and women tend to assume that female applicants will accept a lower wage than their male counterparts. Such cultural assumptions, even if formed subconsciously, might play a role in causing wage gaps.
To see how U.S. median weekly earnings compare for men and women, see
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswom2000.pdf
To read an article about the GAO-based report, see
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/796/context/cover/
To view the report itself, see the following PDF document:
http://www.house.gov/maloney/issues/womenscaucus/glassceiling.pdf
Also see
http://www.equality2020.org/Women.pdf
To read "She's a Woman, Offer Her Less," see
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_19/c3731039.htm#top
To read the abstract of "Gender Differences in the Ultimatum Game," see
http://www3.oup.co.uk/ecoinq/hdb/Volume_39/Issue_02/390189.sgm.abs.html
To read about the wage gap among female healthcare executives, see
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/currentissue/pastpost.php3?refid=8253
To read about the wage gap in the life sciences sector, see
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-10/aaft-ajs100401.php
To read a report about women in the legal profession, see
http://www.abanet.org/ftp/pub/women/unfinishedagenda.pdf
To read about women in the communication business, see
http://www.appcpenn.org/internet/publicpolicy/progress-report.pdf