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Dayton Business Journal...
Report: Gender wage
gap to last 45 more years
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Women will be paid less than men for the next 45 years at the current
pace of closing the gender wage gap, according to a new study.
New research shows it will take 45 more years for women’s and men’s
earnings to reach pay parity — if the wage gap continues to close at
the same pace it has for the last 50 years.
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research reported the findings
Tuesday, the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.
The institute, a nonprofit which conducts research to address the needs
of women and their families, said women have made great gains in
education and employment, but the gender wage gap continues to reflect
women’s lower earnings compared with men.
“The labor market has changed dramatically during the last few
decades,” said Heidi Hartmann, the institute’s president. “Women’s
labor force participation has shot up and women are receiving college
degrees and graduate degrees at faster rates than men, yet the gender
wage gap is improving very slowly.”
Overall, the ratio of women’s to men’s annual median earnings remained
flat at 77 percent in 2008 and 2009, after achieving an all-time peak
of 78 percent in 2007. In 1961, on the 50th anniversary of
International Women’s Day, the gender wage gap was 59 percent, with
significant increases during the 1980s, from 60 percent in 1980 to 69
percent by 1989. But improvement since then has been slow, the insitute
said.
“Women’s lower earnings relative to men mean that their families have
lower incomes than if there were no wage gap,” said Jeffrey Hayes, the
institute’s senior research associate. “Women have less money to save
for the future, and their social security will reflect their lower
earnings after they retire.”
In a recent Fortune magazine list of the Best Companies to Work For,
the companies on the list that ranked high for women employees included
AFLAC Inc. (NYSE: AFL), American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP), Marriott
International Inc. (NYSE: MAR), Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI),
Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX), Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN), Hasbro Inc.
(NYSE: HAS) and the Southern Ohio Medical Center.
Read the article with links at Dayton Business Journal
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