Pay Equity (Comparable Worth)
Occupational segregation contributes to a wage gap the disparity between women’s and men’s earnings. It is calculated by dividing omen’s earnings by men’s to yield a percentage, also known as the earnings ratio (Reskin and Padavic, 2002). Overall, women make approximately 80 cents for every dollar earned by men; however, this figure represents men and women who work a 35-hour- er-week job, and it does not compare men and women who work the same job. As shown in. Figure 11.1, women at aLl levels of educational attainment receive Jess pay than do men with the same levels of education. Across different categories of employment. data continue to demonstrate this disparity, Moreover, the wage gap is even greater for women of coLor. Although white women in 2006 earned 80 percent as much as while 68 percent and atinas 58 percent of what white male workers earned (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2oo7a). The gap increases as a person’s alary grows: Whereas 48 percent of people earning $20,000 to $25,000 per year.
