Census: It pays to be a man in most jobs

[CShine]

If a woman wants to make more money than a man, her job options are severely limited. She could clean up hazardous waste. Or install telecommunications lines. But not much else. The Census Bureau compiled statistics on hundreds of job categories from its 2000 headcount and found just five where women typically earn at least as much as men.

Among hazardous material removal workers, women earn $1.09 for every dollar earned by man. It's slightly more than a dollar for telecommunications line installer and repairers, and it was exactly dollar-for-dollar in three categories: meeting and convention planners; dining room or cafeteria workers; and construction trade helpers. Each of these fields employs predominantly men, except for meeting planning.

Myra Strober, a Stanford University economics professor, said the report and other studies show, "If you are a young woman and want to go into an occupation to earn more money, you'll want to do that in an occupation dominated by men."

Indeed, in the field with the highest proportion of female workers - kindergarten and preschool teachers, nearly 98 percent women - men had median earnings of $22,000, $5,000 more than for women. Among registered nurses, 91 percent were women, but their median income was $42,000. Men made $45,000, according to the Census Bureau's study.

The report was based on 2000 census results that tracked 1999 income data for 505 job categories. However, the rankings of median earnings for women and men were based on a subset of about 400 fields that employed at least 10,000 full-time, year-round workers, including at least 1,000 men and 1,000 women. Nationally, the median income for a woman working full-time, year-round was about $28,000, compared with $38,000 for a man. That means a woman earned less than 74 cents for every dollar earned by a man.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1152&slug=Gender%20Income

[MrSlayer]

1. Well every makes the same money in my trade.

As per Union rule everyone makes the same rate. Which is fair and how it should be.

[Kagemusha]

2. I'm sure this is the 'equal pay for work of equal value' thing.

It makes a nice slogan, but if you have a part timer vs. a full timer and you expect the part timer to make the same money, well, it's hard to make that happen in the real world. Averages aren't the same as, say, having two people with the same position who differ only in sex getting different pay. That basically doesn't happen.

[cally]

5. Yes it does

Discrimination is alive and well. Yes, folks in the same jobs get different salaries based on their race and gender.

[myccrider]

6. Uh, what planet do you live on?

The glass ceiling exists and wage discrimination based on sex is alive and well in the US.

I've ALWAYS made less than the guys working right beside me. The powers that be often tried to disguise the discrimination by playing games with classification/seniority, but it was only a game. Even when I had as much if not more experience/seniority/better results as the men, I got paid less (and often carried a much heavier workload at the same time).

Every woman I worked with or for had the same experience - engineers all.

[Just Me]

9. Perhaps, we've come a long way. But, we've a long way to go.

I've always worked twice as hard to earn a good chunk less than my male counterpart. Now, that I am 40-something,...along with a good deal more education than most folks (8 years total),...maturity & "overqualification" seem to be two more obstacles to career pursuits. It's tough and it sucks.

[cap]

8. yes... but women do not get the ...

same mentorship to get into the higher pay scales;ergo, they aren't in the higher pay scales. Their line supervisors continually give them the dead end assignments so that most women do not rise above a mid-level. No adjustment is made so that men and women can take adequate time off to take care of families without penalty. So equality is not really equality even under better work conditions, ie union rules. You just don't see how the system is rigged.

Let's face it, at the end of the day, many men want their wives to make more money; but they also want their wives to do most of the housework/child care (especially when the second child is born). When it comes down to telling the boss that they have to be home because their wife must work/take courses, they won't do so. They choose to work the extra hours or choose their schedule over taking time off to attend to matters at the home. They just don't want to do the housework; they would rather work. The big calls for work/life balance are coming from women; men are not calling for this -- they just don't want to do it. Your union is not demanding work/life balance for all its members. This issue is seen as a "women's issue" and not an issue for all members of the labor force.

[WillyT]

3. But There Are SO Few MEN With... er, Jobs...

Guys with penises, Penni, dicks... sure!

Hell, they're a dime a dozen.

But Men... In actual jobs...

:takemetoyourleader:

:evilgrin:

[Lorien]

4. They call this "news"?

not to any woman working in corporate America. :eyes:

[rumguy]

7. I'll file this under

the "duh" category of news...

but at least it's being reported.