Report: Women Paid Less Than Men Regardless Of Job Choice

Public News Service

March 24, 2021

LINCOLN, Neb. - Wednesday is national Women's Equal Pay Day, a date symbolizing how far into the new year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year, and a new report shows that women in Nebraska and across the United States earn less than men in virtually every occupation.

Ariane Hegevisch, senior research fellow with the Institute for Women's Policy Research, said women of color, many working on the front lines during the coronavirus pandemic, continue to be at the bottom of the pay gap, "with Latinas and Black women having access to the worst jobs, and white men being more likely to have access to the better jobs. They get to work for better companies; they may also get 40 hours most weeks."

Nationally, women earn 82 cents for every dollar a man is paid, but in service-industry jobs, Latina women earn just 67 cents. Women in Nebraska make 80 cents on the dollar, while Black women are paid just 61 cents. Some attribute the pay gap to data showing more women work in fields that pay less, while others note companies historically have paid men higher salaries because they were seen as family breadwinners.

Hegewisch pointed out that most households today don't have a single breadwinner, and notes of the 120 occupations studied, women face a wage gap regardless of their choice of occupation. She said a majority of women surveyed support government action to close the gap, by helping women get and keep good-paying jobs in fields mostly populated by men, and by raising teacher salaries and the minimum wage, "increasing the pay of the jobs where women mainly work, and tackling unequal pay from companies, whether they do this deliberately or whether they do it just through lack of attention."

She said she thinks companies could be required to report pay data to an official agency, which would make it more difficult to ignore disparities. She added that as people are able to return to work after COVID-19, requiring companies to list salary ranges also could give women a better shot at having the same starting wage as men.

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