Women narrow gap in pay

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

PULSE: Edward D. Murphy

Pay equality among men and women is still an ideal, but it seems to be getting a little closer to reality in Maine.

The latest figures comparing average pay by gender show that men still earn more: A woman, on average, earns 76.1 percent of a man's pay nationally. But in Maine, women's average pay was 79.4 percent of men's in 2001, 10th best in the country.

Part of the problem is that women still tend to obtain lower-paying jobs. But, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, women have been making up ground.

For instance, earnings for women with college degrees have grown by 30.9 percent since 1979, adjusted for inflation. Earnings for male college graduates increased just 20.2 percent over the same period.

Maine's figures on pay equity are getting better, too. In 2000, Maine ranked 20th among the states, with women earning 75.4 percent, on average, of the pay for men, according to Dana Evans, a labor market economist for the state Department of Labor. So it's moved up substantially in the national rankings.

Evans said it could be easy to read too much into the change in one year, because the numbers tend to move around a lot. And, for 2001, the gain for women may have come about in part because of losses in pay among men.

Evans noted that Maine has been shedding jobs in male-dominated manufacturing that generally pay well. That job loss accelerated last year, accounting for at least part of the sudden upsurge in women's pay as a percentage of men's pay in the state, he said.

But, he added, "I look at the long-term trends, and it certainly is encouraging."

New England states, in general, do fairly well on pay equality. Massachusetts tops the region, with the average woman's pay equal to 81.8 percent of the average man's pay. The Bay State was third nationally.

Vermont (81.7 percent) joined Maine above the national average, while Rhode Island was just below the national average and New Hampshire and Connecticut were further back in the pack.

Delaware led the nation, with the average pay of a woman 82.4 percent of a man's pay, and Wyoming was last at 67.4 percent.

THE NATIONAL figures also look more positive for the future. As people enter the work force, the pay disparity seems to get smaller.

For instance, for workers between 55 and 64 years old, a woman earned just 70.4 percent of the average pay for a man. But among 20- to 24-year-olds, the figure was 91.6 percent.

And in 1979, women, on average, earned 62.5 cents for every $1 earned by a man, so the gap has narrowed by nearly 15 cents since figures have been compiled.

Ellen Golden, a senior program officer for Coastal Enterprises Inc., thinks part of the reasoning for the shrinking earnings gap might be due to the success of women-owned businesses, particularly in Maine.

Golden helped conduct a study that showed more women are starting businesses in Maine and most of them do quite well: The household income for families of female business owners was about $20,000 higher than the average household income in the state.

And, she said, women "tend to make good employers," particularly on issues such as flexible schedules and pay equality.

Golden said, "Things have changed a lot in the last two or three decades," but it's still not unheard of to hear women complain of less pay for doing the same work as a man.

One thing her study found, though, is that women have developed strong networking skills in Maine, helping business owners find new clients and workers find new - and usually better-paying - jobs.

That might help explain the ability of Maine women to close the gap on pay with men, Golden said.

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at: emurphy@pressherald.com

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