Gender pay gap narrows for unexpected reason: Men's wages eroding

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Gender pay gap narrows -- for unexpected reasons
The disparity's decrease isn't because women are making great strides but because men's wages are eroding, data show.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Times Staff Writer
December 3, 2006

Women are closing in on men when it comes to wages, but not for the reasons anticipated — or hoped for — when gender pay equity became a rallying cry in the 1970s.

Data show that the pay gap has been narrowing not because women have made great strides, labor experts say, but because men's wages are eroding.

The disparity in median hourly pay between men and women narrowed to 18.3% in August from 21.5% five years earlier, according to recently released census figures. In addition, the U.S. Labor Department noted recently that the wage differential in 2005 was the smallest since the department began tracking it 33 years ago, when it was 36.9%.

Even when men's and women's work patterns are taken into account — men tend to work more hours — the pay gap is narrowing. The difference between men's and women's median annual earnings shrank between 2000 and 2005 from 26.3% to 23%, or 77 cents on each dollar earned by men. Women earned an average $31,858 and men $41,386....

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In the U.S., men have tended to dominate in blue-collar and manufacturing jobs, which have been disappearing — or seeing downward wage pressure — for the last few decades.

Women, on the other hand, have been more prevalent in service jobs such as healthcare, which historically have been lower-paying but have seen wages rise in recent years....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-wagegap3dec03,0,395896.story?coll=la-home-nation

[Erika]

1. W's America

Reduce pay for all working class Americans

[Kiouni]

2. well i guess that's a solution

to the inequality of pay between sexes but probably not the route i would have taken, Good job thinking out side the box G'dubbya.

[SoCalDem]

3. Nasty little trick, eh?

Job-equality is arriving in the US, BUT women's wages stagnate up against the glass ceiling, and the men in the attic, are crashing through that glass ceiling on their way down.

I think the fact that so many families have women working outside the home, has been disguising the falling family income for a long time now..that and the re-finances and the plastic.

But just like the housebound drunk who eventually "finds" all the hidden bottles of booze, workers have about run out of options.

Unfortunately, there's no turning back. Women who want to stay home with kids, cannot afford to, and many end up doing shitty jobs outside the home just to make that little bit extra to keep the family afloat. Many men's jobs no longer can support a family these days.