Gender Inequality at Work

In 1950, women composed 30 percent of the workforce. Over 50 years later, this number has increased to 47 percent. Working women are an increasingly vital component of our society, becoming more essential to our economy’s health. And as women’s participation in the workforce has grown, so has their political participation. Although it might appear that women have achieved near occupational parity with men, gross injustices in the workforce still exist in the form of disparities of wages, benefits and workplace violence.

The Wage Gap

In 2001, the wage gap decreased for the fifth consecutive year but it remains substantial: women who worked full-time, year-round earned 76 cents for every dollar men earned. An average woman who works full time will earn over $400,000 less than the average man over her working life. Furthermore, female-dominated occupations (e.g., secretaries, elementary school teachers) overall have lower wages, whether the jobs are held by men or women. Approximately 4 million men work in female-dominated occupations and lose about $6,000 each year.

Even within female-dominated occupations women generally earn less than men. For example, the 2001 ratio of women’s earnings to men’s earnings for cashiers (76.9 percent women) was 89.3, for registered nurses (93.1 percent women) was 87.9, and for accountants and auditors (58.8 percent women) was 72.0. Only 4 of the leading 20 occupations for employed women have earnings ratios above 90%. This loss of earnings negatively affects the entire population: because of the wage gap, working families lose $200 billion of income a year.

Pension and Retirement . . . Inequality from Beginning to End

The loss of wages a woman experiences during her working years is directly correlated with her retirement benefits. Retired women are about half as likely as retired men to receive income from a pension.Women’s pension benefits are generally lower than men’s because they are typically based on earnings, and women’s earnings are generally lower than men’s. In addition, women’s overall participation levels in retirement plans are lower. Although participation rates in pension plans are about equal for full-time working women and men, part-time working women are far less likely to participate in employer-based pension plans than their male counterparts, and women compose the majority of part-time workers. This can be partly explained by the fact that women are more likely to have occupations that do not offer retirement benefits.

Workplace Violence . . . Paid Less Only to Suffer More

In 2001, 14,170 lost-time injuries or illnesses resulting from assaults and violent acts on women at work were reported, whereas men suffered from 9,464. Although women compose 47 percent of the workforce, they suffer 60 percent of these attacks. Junior high school teachers and convenience store clerks have approximately the same victimization rate (54.2 versus 53.9 per 1,000 workers, respectively). About 36,500 rapes occur in the workplace annually, approximately 80 percent of which occur against women. In 2001, female fatalities in the workplace resulted from transportation incidents (48.2 percent), assaults and violent acts (30.8 percent), and falls (8.7 percent). The top causes of male fatalities were transportation incidents (42.2 percent), contact with objects and equipment (17.3 percent), and falls (14.1 percent), with only 13.9 percent from assaults and violent acts. Not enough has been done to insure the safety of workers from these acts of violence, including standardized reporting methods and treating the problem as an occupational issue in addition to one of criminal justice.

Race and Ethnicity . . . as if Being a Woman Wasn’t Hard Enough

Women of color have lower wages, are poorer and are more likely to be unemployed than the average non-Hispanic White female. African American women earn 65.0 cents to the overall male dollar, while Latinas earn only 55.5 cents. In 2001, White women had weekly earnings of $521, Black women made $451, and Hispanic women made $385. The unemployment rate for African-American women is several percentage points higher than for White women. The most devastating factor is that a minority woman’s family depends more on her employment: minority women contribute a greater percentage to their family income than do White women.