Women and Work: Then, Now, and Predicting the Future for Women in the Workplace Part II

By Susan M. Heathfield

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Business Women's Earnings and Education

"The median weekly earnings of women age 35-44 as a percentage of men’s increased from 58.3 percent to 73.0 percent from 1979 to 1993, a rise of 14.7 percentage points.

There also was an increase in the female-to-male earnings ratio among those age 45 to 54 from 1979 to 1993."

"In 1998, women in managerial and professional occupations earned much more per week than women in other occupations. Their median weekly earnings were 56 percent greater than those of technical, sales, and administrative support workers, the next-highest category."

"A look at women’s earnings over the past 20 years shows a mixed picture of progress. Women’s inflation-adjusted earnings have increased nearly 14 percent since 1979, whereas men’s have declined by about 7 percent. But while women’s earnings have improved relative to men’s, full-time working women found themselves making only about 76 percent of what men earned in 1998. Earnings for women with college degrees shot up almost 22 percent over the past two decades but, for women without a post-secondary education, there was little advancement."

"Women employed full time in professional specialty occupations earned $682 in 1998, more than women employed in any other major occupational category. Within this occupation group, women working as physicians, pharmacists and lawyers had the highest median earnings.

"Women's share of employment in occupations typified by high earnings has grown. In 1998, 46.4 percent of full-time wage and salary workers in executive, administrative, and managerial occupations were women, up from 34.2 percent in 1983, the first year for which comparable data are available. Over the same time period, women as a proportion of professional specialty workers rose from 46.8 percent to 51.6 percent.

"In contrast, there was relatively little change in women's share of full-time wage and salary employment in the remaining occupational groups. In 1983, women held 77.7 percent of administrative support occupations; in 1998, they still held 76.3 percent of those jobs." Women represented 7.9 percent of precision production, craft and repair workers, in 1983 and in 1998.

Current:

"Among 1998 high school graduates, more women than men enrolled in college. As of October, 938,000 young women who graduated from high school in 1998 were in college while 906,000 young men were enrolled." The trend of more women attending college continues.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor: Women's Education

Prediction:

Pay to women will continue to lag the pay men earn in similar careers, even when the woman has more education. The trend of more women attending college will continue, although I'll look at the majors they are pursuing later in this feature. Chosen studies are affecting both their pay and their employability potential.

What Employers Can Do:

Employers, most importantly, need to be knowledgable about the pay gap that still exists between men and women doing comparable work. Managers, at all levels, who control salaries and budgets, need to make a commitment to paying people, regardless of gender, the same amount of money for comparable work.

Women need to stay in touch with their own workplace. If a woman knows she is making less money than a man, and all other issues appear to be equal, she owes it to herself to take the case to her boss and to Human Resources. She can help to create a more gender-friendly workplace and promote her own worth.

Employers need to pay more attention to the Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines. They exist to create equity and too many employers are still working them as if they are a numbers game because of tracking and reporting requirements. I'd be so happy to see a genuine commitment to paying people equitably based on contribution.

As recommended by the Women Employed Institute, make women more aware of careers that offer higher pay opportunities. Most women's jobs are clustered in "female" occupations that pay poorly. Promote and educate women about these opportunities so women pursue opportunities for education in these higher paying opportunities. Catalyst, which monitors the progress of women in the workplace, reported that as of 1998, only 2.7 percent of the highest-paid officers at Fortune 500 companies were women. Women continue to dominate lower paying domestic, clerical support, and administrative-type occupations.

{p}Next, let's take a look at current numbers of women in science and technology careers, predicted to offer great opportunities in the next decades. Then, we'll consider what employers can do to encourage the participation of women in these careers.