Census data confirms local report on gender wage gap

Recent data issued by the U.S. Census Bureau confirmed an October 2021 report by the Utah Women & Leadership Project at Utah State University about the gender wage gap in America and Utah.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Officials of the U.S. Census Bureau report that American women are “over-represented in lower paying jobs nationwide and, as they age, the gender wage gap widens even more.”

The Census data, released Jan. 27, is based on analysis of Census Quarterly Workforce Indicators of female workers aged 35 to 44 in July to September of 2020. That snapshot revealed that women in that age group earned 30 percent less than their male counterparts and that their pay gap increased with age.

That information confirms a critical report issued in October of 2021 by the Utah Women & Leadership Project (UWLP) at Utah State University.

The gender wage gap is the difference between what women and men earn for performing similar full-time, year-round paid work.

According to the UWLP report, American women of all ages earn 16 to 18% less than men.

While both Census and USU officials both acknowledge that the gender wage gap has substantially narrowed from 41% when the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963, varying reports estimate that it may take from 40 to 130 years to close that gap.

The UWLP’s 2021 report was based on a compilation of research pulled from 60 sources regarding the gender wage gap. That report showed that Utah women earn approximately 30% less than men, ranking close to last in most state comparisons.

“The gender wage gap narrows for younger women as they increase their education levels and break into occupations traditionally dominated by men,” according to Earlene K.P. Dowell, a program analyst in the Economic Management/Data User and Trade Outreach Branch of the Census Bureau.

Census officials say that women are a growing presence in higher paying industries like information management and professional, scientific and technical services. In fact, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, women are actually more likely than men to be employed in professional and related occupations.

But, within those occupational fields, “the proportion of women in the highest-paying jobs is much smaller than that of men.”

Census officials also report that, even for women with bachelor’s or advanced degrees, there is a gender wage gap of almost $4,000 per month in those professional occupational fields.

On the other end of the wage spectrum, Census officials note that there are nearly 15 million women employed in health care and social services jobs; more than 7 million in retail/trade jobs; and 5.5 million in accommodations/food service jobs.

The 2021 UWLP report also showed that although the pay gap is substantial among all American women, it is even higher for women from specific racial and ethnic groups. For example, compared to the earnings of non-Hispanic White men, women who are African-American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander make 63%, Native American women make 60%, and Hispanic/Latina women make 55%.

Furthermore, all women nationally earn less than men in their same racial or ethnic group.

Along with race/ethnicity, other factors – such as sexual orientation, gender identity and disabilities – compound to widen the gender wage gap.

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2 Comments

  • whoknows February 1, 2022 at 9:10 am Reply

    “almost $4,000 per month”… No

  • DRA February 1, 2022 at 9:58 am Reply

    I would like to see a comparison Job vs Job

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