Equal Pay Day 2010: Women, 78 Cents, Men, $1 (worse for women of color)

[ensho]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/04/20/equal-pay-day-2010-women-78-cents-men-1/


Today’s the day when women workers finally catch up with the pay men received last year—the day we mark as Equal Pay Day. Being three months and 20 days behind men’s wages means women who work full-time still are paid, on average, 78 cents for every dollar men are paid. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wages of full-time, year-round workers in 2008 stood at $35,745 for women and $46,367 for men.

The wage gap is even worse for women of color. In 2008, the earnings for African American women were $31,489, 67.9 percent of men’s earnings (a drop from 68.7 percent in 2007), and Latinas’ earnings were $26,846, 58 percent of men’s earnings (a drop from 59 percent in 2007).
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[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. I think using the BLS Median Wage data might be a little skewed.

There are ALOT of manual labor jobs that, on the whole, are populated by males.

Drilling, outrigging, mariners, heavy fabrication, mechanics/maintenence, construction, ... basically very physically demanding jobs. Sure, there are women that work these jobs and do great jobs. But, from what I've witnessed at several jobs (construction & manufacturing), women on the whole tend to not prefer physically demanding jobs such as these. Heck, there's even a ton of guys out there that don't want or can't handle these jobs. As such many of these jobs are fairly lucritive, especially considering that very few require secondary or graduate degrees.

I think that many of these physically jobs might be throwing off the median earning for men vs. women.
Also, I'm not saying there isn't an actual wage disparity (among similar jobs) because I'm sure there is.
I'm just wondering if the Bureau of Labor Statistics account for demographic job preferences. ???

[DURHAM D]

2. Every time I hear some fool say the U.S. is postfeminist I do this -

:puke:

The yellow head is supposed to be puking.