Sunday, April 29, 2007

Women and the Pay Gap

The American Association of University Women issued a report. One of the things it says is:

"Ten years after graduation, women fall further behind, earning only 69 percent of what men earn. Even after controlling for hours, occupation, parenthood, and other factors known to affect earnings, the research indicates that one-quarter of the pay gap remains unexplained and is likely due to sex discrimination."

I emailed them the following question but have not heard back:

"So the 69 percent means that women earn 69 cents for every dollar that men make ten years after college. That makes the gap 31 cents. But when these other factors are accounted for, one-quarter of the gap remains. Since one-quarter of 31 is 7.75, that means when all other factors are held constant, women earn 92.25 cents for every dollar that men make. Is my interpretation correct? How does this compare to what other studies have found? Is this gap changing over time? Were any other causes for the remaining 7.75 cents examined besides sexual discrimination?"

An article by Steve Chapman gives a different view than the American Association of University Women on this issue.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like your ideas about all of this. For the most part, I like how you made up the differential. It is mostly overrated in my opinion. Women make a lot more money than they have ever made before and they still complain. I guess a person can never have enough.

Cyril Morong said...

Thanks for dropping by. You might be interested in some numbers from the Census Bureau that show incomes for men and women over time. It is at

Census Bureau Incomes