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Nudnik
01-05-2001, 11:18 AM
http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/

Kiplinger Magazine,2001,02,p22. What gender gap?
AFTER narrowing throughout the 1980s, the so-called
gender wage gap actually widened a bit in the '90s,with women earning only about 75 cents for every dollar that men make. But that doesn't mean that wage discrimination is rampant or that it even explains why the gap exists.
In recent years, studies have consistently pointed
a number of legitimate reasons women earn less. For
one thing, women tend to work fewer hours. Not only
do 27% of working women work part-time, but those employed full-time put in 92% of the hours put in by men who work full-time.If you compare the earning of men and women on an
hourly basis, rather than weekly, almost one-third of the wage gap disappears. Women also tend to make educational and occupational choices that will give them flexibility if
they interrupt their careers for child-rearing—even
though they may earn less.Women without children make about 95% as much as men with similar jobs and experience.

Among corporate executives, a simple comparison of average compensation packages indicates that women earn 45% less than men. But once you adjust for age, tenure and compa-
ny size, the gender gap virtually disappears. "Very few
men or women ever get to the top of corporate America, but women are paid fairly once they get there," says
Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the American Enterprise
Institute, who co-authored Women's Figures: An illus-
trated Guide to the Economic Progress of Women in America.
Only about 5% of the wage gap is unexplained,...

You can read the complete article in the February issue of the Kiplinger's Magazine. I thought that both boys and girls (or is it husbands and wives here?) would be interested and put it here.

jamesglewisf
01-05-2001, 05:49 PM
Interesting topic.

My wife decided to quit working when we got married. If she decided to start working after our daughter is older, and I doubt she will, she will be earning less than almost everybody who has been working all along. I guess this article kind of makes sense to me.

BTW, I totally back her decision not to work. This is in no way a complaint.

Nudnik
01-05-2001, 10:26 PM
I do not know how this statistics is calculated. I mean, your wife’s career is a good example of what happens to many women: because of the children, they leave their jobs, and lag behind men for years, in terms of growth and experience. Naturally, because of that, their salaries will be lower, when they return. Because of less experience, not because they are women. But how is it reflected in dry statistics?