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Massachusetts Commission
on the Status of Women |
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The Reality of the Wage Gap
in
Massachusetts
Despite making great strides in the last 40 years, the issue of
unequal wages continues to undermine women’s economic equality. Currently,
full-time female employees with a high school degree lose $700,000 over their
lifetime due to the wage gap. Unfortunately,
the gap only widens with each subsequent level of education. For instance,
women with a bachelor’s degree lose $1.2 million over their lifetimes while
women with graduate degrees lose $2 million. As a result, these financial losses impact a woman’s immediate and future
goals, everything from whether she can attend college, buy a house or live
comfortably in retirement.
Pay equity, on the other hand, would resolve these
problems. Pay equity is a method that would eliminate “discrimination in the
wage-setting system” because it would force employers to implement a gender-
and race-neutral criterion for setting wages. Advocates of pay equity defined the concept of comparable worth to combat the
effects of women’s segregation into “pink-collar” jobs. The idea of
comparable worth argues that if men and women have comparable skills,
training, effort and responsibility on their jobs, even if the two genders
are employed in different occupations, they should be equally compensated for
equivalent work. Ideally, if the wages for “pink-collar” jobs rose, advocates argue that
sex-segregation would decrease as men sought out higher ages in
traditionally “female” occupations.
Click here for a full study on pay equity.
Facts and Figures: How much is the wage
gap costing you?
- Despite making great strides
in the last 40 years, the issue of unequal wages continues to undermine
women’s economic equality. Currently, full-time female employees with a
high school degree lose $700,000 over their lifetime due to the wage
gap. Unfortunately, the
gap only widens with each subsequent level of education. For instance,
women with a bachelor’s degree lose $1.2 million over their lifetimes
while women with graduate degrees lose $2 million. As a result, these financial losses impact a woman’s immediate and future
goals, everything from whether she can attend college, buy a house or
live comfortably in retirement.
- Between the years 2007-2008,
the wage gap in the
US
between men and women slightly widened to 77% from 78%. If one compares the median earnings of full-time, non-seasonal
employees, women earned $35,745 while men earned $46, 367.
- For women of all educational
levels, female employees in
Massachusetts
who worked in non-seasonal, full-time occupations earned $41,700 a year,
which is 79% of men’s wages.
- Some opponents of pay equity
argue that the process will cut into companies' profits, thereby
disrupting the economy. However, the case study of
Minnesota
has disproved this theory.
After passing pay equity legislation,
Minnesota
’s state government only spent
1% of its payroll budget per year.
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