IWPR #C350a Updated April 2010 The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation
The gender wage gap and occupational gregation – men primarily working in occupations done by other men, and women primarily working with other women – are persistent features of the US labor market. During 2009, median weekly earnings for female full-time workers were $657, compared with $819 per week for men, a gender wage ratio of 80.2 percent (or a gender wage gap of 19.8 percent). Women’s median earnings are lower than men’s in nearly all occupations, whether they work in occupations predominantly done by women, occupations predominantly done by men, or occupations with a more even mix of men and women. Four of ten women (39.7 percent, down from 43.6 percent in 2008) work in traditionally female occupations, and slightly more than four of ten male workers (43.6 percent, down from 46.1 percent in 2008) work in traditionally male occupations.1 Typically, male dominated occupations pay more than female dominated occupations at similar skill levels. Therefore, tackling occupational gregation is an important part of tackling the gender wage gap.
Women Earn Less than Men in (Almost) All Occupations
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects data on median weekly earnings for 503 different occupations; many of the have too few workers to reliably estimate weekly earnings, or employ too few people of one x to estimate a female/male earnings ratio.2 Of the 108 occupations for which sufficient data are available, there are only four in which women’s weekly median earnings are higher than men’s.3 With the exception of ‘other life, physical, and social science technicians’ (median earnings of $740 for women), the all have median weekly earnings of less than $500. At the other end of the spectrum, three of the four occupations with the largest gender wage gap have median male earnings above $1,000 per week.4
Women Earn Less than Men in the Most Common Occupations
The ten most common occupations for women employ 29.2 percent of all female full-time workers (compared with 28.9 percent in 2008). Median weekly earnings range from $1,037 for ‘managers’ and $1,035 for ‘registered nurs’ to $430 for ‘nursing, psychiatric and home health aides’ and $361 for ‘cashiers’ (Table 1). Women earn less than men in each of the occupations; the gender wage ratio ranges from 75.8 percent for ‘accountants and auditors’ to 95.1 percent for ‘customer rvice reprentatives.’
For men, the ten most common occupations employ 20.7 percent of all male full-time workers (compared with 21.3 percent in 2008). Median weekly earnings for men range from $2,084 for ‘chief executives’ and $1,292 for ‘managers’ to $494 for ‘janitors and building cleaners’ and $400 for ‘cooks’ (Table 1). Women earn less than men in each of the occupations (although there are too few women ‘construction laborers’ to calculate a gender wage ratio there).
Table 1: The Wage Gap in the Ten Most Common Occupations* for Women and Men (Full-Time Workers Only), 2009
Median weekly earnings for men
($)
Median
weekly
物业英文earnings
for
women
($)
Women's
earnings
as percent
of men's
Share of
female
workers in
occupation
Share of
male
workers in
occupation
as percent
of all male
workers
Share of
female
workers in
occupation
as percent of
all female
workers
All female workers (44,712,000) 819 657 80.2% 44.8%** 100% 100% 10 most common
occupations for women
Secretaries and administrative
assistants
666 619 92.9% 96.9% 0.1% 5.3% Elementary and middle school
teachers
1,040 891 85.7% 81.3% 0.8% 4.4% Registered nurs 1,090 1,035 95.0% 90.7% 0.4% 4.3% Nursing, psychiatric, and home
health aides
519 430 82.9% 88.0% 0.3% 2.8% First-line supervisors/managers
of retail sales workers
770 597 77.5% 44.4% 2.3% 2.3% First-line supervisors/managers
of office and administrative
support workers
837 705 84.2% 68.9% 0.8% 2.2%
Customer rvice
reprentatives
617 587 95.1% 66.7% 0.9% 2.2% Cashiers 422 361 85.5% 70.7% 0.7% 2.0% Accountants and auditors 1,190 902 75.8% 61.1% 1.0% 1.9% Managers, all other 1,292 1,037 80.3% 38.0% 2.3% 1.8% Sum 9.7% 29.2%
All male workers (55,108,000)
10 most common
occupations for men
Driver/sales workers and truck
drivers
690 512 74.2% 3.7% 4.3% 0.2% Managers, all other 1,292 1,037 80.3% 38.0% 2.3% 1.8% First-line supervisors/managers
of retail sales workers
770 597 77.5% 44.4% 2.3% 2.3% Janitors and building cleaners 494 401 81.2% 26.5% 2.0% 0.9% Retail salespersons 624 443 71.0% 42.8% 1.9% 1.8% Laborers and freight, stock, and
material movers, hand
511 421 82.4% 13.4% 1.8% 0.3% Construction laborers 595 * * 2.3% 1.7% 0.0% Chief executives 2,084 1,553 74.5% 24.3% 1.5% 0.6% Sales reprentatives,
苦杏仁有毒吗wholesale and manufacturing
986 736 74.6% 26.8% 1.5% 0.7% Cooks 400 371 92.8% 36.7% 1.4% 1.0% Sum 20.7% 9.5% Note: * Earnings data are made available only where there are an estimated minimum of 50,000 workers in an occupation. ** This refers to women’s share of all full-time workers.
Source: IWPR compilation of data from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2009. “Houhold Data Annual Averages. Table 39.” <v/cps/cpsaat39.pdf> (retrieved March 2010).毛蛋怎么做好吃
Women Earn Less than Men in the Highest Paying Occupations
The gender wage gap is evident in both the highest and lowest paying occupations for women. A significant proportion of women (3.7 percent; Table 2) work in the ten highest paying occupations, each with median female earnings significantly above $1000, yet proportionately almost twice as many men work in the occupations (7.0 percent). With the exception of ‘occupational therapists’, women are in the minority in nine of the ten occupations, and three of them classify as ‘non-traditional’ (Table 2). Computing and related occupations figure highly in the top ten list, including ‘computing scientists and system analysts’ and ‘computer programmers’ with comparatively low gen
der wage gaps (Table 2). The female-to-male earnings ratio is lowest for ‘physicians and surgeons’, where women are a third of the workforce and on average earn only 64.2 percent of men (Table 2).
Six of the highest earning occupations for women are also in the top ten list for men (Table 3). In three of the remaining occupations there are too few women to estimate an earnings ratio. ‘Human resource managers’ is the only occupation on the list of the highest paying male occupations where women are the majority of the workforce. This occupation was also in the top-ten list for women in 2008 but is no longer so in 2009; median earnings for women fell while they ro for men, leading to a significant increa in the gender wage gap.5
Women Earn Less than Men in the Lowest Paying Occupations
The proportion of women working in the ten occupations with the lowest female earnings (all with median earnings of less than $400 per week for full-time work) account for 7.7 percent of all women, almost twice as many as work in the highest earning occupations (Table 2). Women are the majority of workers in eight of the occupations, including two occupations in which no earnings data for men are available. Women’s weekly median earnings were below tho of men, although typically the gender wage gap is smaller than the wage gap for all workers (Table 2). The ten occupations wit
h the lowest earnings for men include occupations in which the majority of workers are male as well as occupations in which the majority of workers are female. Overall
a lower proportion of men work in the occupations than women (4.4 percent compared with
5.2 percent; Table 3). With the exception of ‘dining room and cafeteria attendants and bar tender helpers,’ women’s median earnings are lower than men’s.
The Gender Wage Gap and Racial/ Ethnic Background
The gender wage gap differs by race and ethnic background. With the exception of white workers, the gender wage gap within each race or ethnic group is narrower than the wage gap for the whole population; the gender wage gap for white workers is larger than the average (Table 4). Hispanic or Latina women have the lowest earnings, at $509 per week, and only earn 55.2 percent of the median weekly earnings of white men (Table 4).
The sample size in the Current Population Survey is insufficient to provide reliable estimates of the occupational wage gap by gender, race and ethnicity at the same level of detail as for all employees. Data for broad occupational groups suggest that earnings differences by race and ethnic backgroun
d are both due to the greater likelihood of women of color to work in rvice occupations, which have the lowest median earnings overall, but also that there are marked differences within occupational groupings, with Latinas and Hispanic women having the lowest
median weekly earnings in each group, be this rvices or ‘management, business and financial occupations’ (Table 5).
Table 2: Occupations* with the Highest and Lowest Median Weekly Earnings for Women (Full-Time Workers Only), 2009
Median weekly earnings of male workers
Median
weekly
earnings
of
female
workers
呆若木鸡的意思Women's
earnings
as % of贺卡怎么写
men's
Share of
female
workers in
occupation
Share of
male
workers in
occupation
as percent
of all male
workers
Share of
female
workers in
occupation
as percent of
all female
workers
10 highest paying
occupations for women
Chief executives 2,084 1,553 74.5% 24.3% 1.5% 0.6% Pharmacists 1,954 1,475 75.5% 43.0% 0.2% 0.2% Lawyers 1,934 1,449 74.9% 36.6% 0.8% 0.5% Computer and information
systems managers
1,788 1,411 78.9% 27.7% 0.6% 0.3% Computer software engineers 1,550 1,311 84.6% 21.3% 1.3% 0.4% Physicians and surgeons 1,914 1,228 64.2% 34.3% 0.7% 0.5% Computer programmers 1,267 1,182 93.3% 21.1% 0.6% 0.2% Management analysts 1,371 1,177 85.8% 47.4% 0.4% 0.4% Computer scientists and
systems analysts
1,268 1,167 92.0% 27.8% 0.9% 0.4% Occupational therapists * 1,155 * 81.7% 0.0% 0.1% Sum 7.0% 3.7%
10 lowest paying
occupations for women
Miscellaneous agricultural
workers
405 346 85.4% 15.0% 0.8% 0.2% Combined food preparation and
rving workers, including fast
food
357 347 97.2% 64.3% 0.1% 0.2%
Cashiers 422 361 85.5% 70.7% 0.7% 2.0% Laundry and dry-cleaning
workers
493 362 73.4% 60.4% 0.1% 0.2% Waiters and waitress 419 363 86.6% 65.5% 0.5% 1.1% Child
care workers * 364 * 95.6% 0.0% 0.9% Food preparation workers 385 367 95.3% 51.8% 0.3% 0.4% Cooks 400 371 92.8% 36.7% 1.4% 1.0% Maids and houkeeping
cleaners
444 371 83.6% 87.1% 0.2% 1.5% Sewing machine operators * 383 * 70.1% 0.1% 0.2% Sum 4.1% 7.7%
Note: * Data are made available only where there are an estimated minimum of 50,000 workers in an occupation. Source: IWPR compilation of data from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2009. Houhold Data Annual Averages. Table 39. <v/cps/cpsaat39.pdf> (retrieved March 2010).
Table 3: Occupations* with the highest and lowest median weekly earnings for men (Full-Time Workers Only), 2009
Median weekly earnings of male workers
Median
weekly
earnings
of
female
workers
Women's
earnings
as % of
men's
Share of
遇见初恋
male
workers in
occupation
Share of
male
workers in
occupation
as percent
of all male
workers
Share of
female
workers in
occupation
as percent of
all female
workers
10 highest paying
occupations for men
Chief executives 2,084 1,553 74.5% 75.7% 1.5% 0.6% Pharmacists 1,954 1,475 75.5% 57.0% 0.2% 0.2% Lawyers 1,934 1,449 74.9% 63.4% 0.8% 0.5% Physicians and surgeons 1,914 1,228 64.2% 65.7% 0.7% 0.5% Engineering managers 1,855 * * 91.2% 0.2% 0.0% Computer and information
systems managers
1,788 1,411 78.9% 72.3% 0.6% 0.3% Aircraft pilots and flight
engineers
1,652 * * 100.0% 0.2% * Physical scientists, all other 1,587 * * 66.7% 0.1% 0.1% Computer software engineers 1,550 1,311 84.6% 78.7% 1.3% 0.4% Human resources managers 1,548 1,072 69.3% 35.5% 0.2% 0.4% Sum 5.8% 3.0%
10 lowest paying
occupations for men
Dishwashers 339 * * 83.6% 0.2% 0.0% Combined food preparation and
rving workers, including fast
food
357 347 97.2% 35.1% 0.1% 0.2%
Dining room and cafeteria
attendants and bartender
helpers
360 400 111.1% 48.4% 0.1% 0.1% Food preparation workers 385 367 95.3% 48.2% 0.3% 0.4% Cooks 400 371 92.8% 63.3% 1.4% 1.0% Miscellaneous agricultural
workers
405 346 85.4% 85.0% 0.8% 0.2% Parking lot attendants 415 * * 87.7% 0.1% 0.0% Waiters and waitress 419 363 86.6% 34.5% 0.5% 1.1% Cashiers 422 361 85.5% 29.3% 0.7% 2.0% Cleaners of vehicles and
equipment
423 * * 88.8% 0.3% 0.1% Sum 4.4% 5.2% Note: * Data are made available only where there are an estimated minimum of 50,000 workers in an occupation. Source: IWPR compilation of data from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2009. “Houhold Data Annual Averages. Table 39.” <v/cps/cpsaat39.pdf> (retrieved March 2010).
Table 4: Median Weekly Earnings for Male and Female Workers, by Race and Ethnic Background (Full-Time Workers Only), 2009
11一块奶酪
Race and Ethnicity Male
($)
Female
($)
Women's as % of
Male Earnings in
Same Race/ Ethnic
Group
Women's as % of
White Male
Earnings
All Races 819 657 80.2 n.a. White (Non-Hispanic) 922 704 76.4 76.4 Black or African American* 621 582 93.7 63.1 Asian* 952 779 81.8 84.5 Hispanic or Latino (any race) 569 509 89.5 55.2 Note: * Data for Black or Africans American may include Black Hispanics/ Latinas.
Source: IWPR compilation of data bad on US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Table A-2. Usual weekly earnings of
employed full-time wage and salary workers by intermediate occupation, x, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity
and Non-Hispanic ethnicity, Annual Average 2009.
Occupational Gender Segregation is a Strong Feature of the U.S. Labor Market
大唐情史床戏Four of ten women (39.7 percent, down from 43.6 percent in 2008) work in occupations where at
least 75 percent of the workers are female; the occupations employ only 4.5 percent of men.
An even higher proportion of men work in predominantly male occupations (43.6 percent, down
from 46.1 percent in 2008), which employ only 5.5 percent of women. As a result of the
recession the share of men and women in traditional x-typed occupations fell during 2009
becau job loss were particularly vere in male dominated ctors such as construction. Yet occupational gregation remains a significant feature of the US labor market.
A more comprehensive analysis of trends in gender gregation is provided by the ‘Index of Dissimilarity.’6 The Index of Dissimilarity, bad on all workers, not just tho working full-
time, shows a small increa in gregation during 2009 (Figure 1).7 It also suggests that after
falling considerably in the 1980s, it has remained virtually unchanged since the mid 1990s.
Looking at trends parately by level of education suggests that, overall, jobs requiring four
years of college and more are more integrated than jobs requiring less education. Occupations
which have en a significant increa in the share of women workers include lawyers and accountants, as well as bus drivers and mail carriers, all providing good earnings (data not
shown). Yet women have made virtually no in-roads into other male dominated occupations such
as carpenters or mechanical engineers (data not shown).
