Gender earnings gap widens

Depending upon what city you live in, your age, and what gender you represent, there have been some remarkable changes in average compensation over the past 10 years. The data is from a U.S. study, but it certainly speaks to the remarkable strides that urban American women are making in a variety of job categories (there is no systemic reason why a U.S. urban trend of this nature wouldn’t also be taking place in Canada). And it doesn’t seem to be education dependent.

Although a majority of company CEOs and CFOs we meet still seem to be male, the average wages of women in cities such as New York and Dallas exceed those of men. And the gap is increasing. The entire piece is available in today’s New York Times, but here’s a primer:

By SAM ROBERTS
Published: August 3, 2007

Young women in New York and several of the nation’s other largest cities who work full time have forged ahead of men in wages, according to an analysis of recent census data.

Economists consider it striking because the wage gap between men and women nationally has narrowed more slowly and has even widened in recent years among one part of that group: college-educated women in their 20s. But in New York, young college-educated women’s wages as a percentage of men’s rose slightly between 2000 and 2005.

The analysis was prepared by Andrew A. Beveridge, a demographer at Queens College, who first reported his findings in Gotham Gazette, published online by the Citizens Union Foundation. It shows that women of all educational levels from 21 to 30 living in New York City and working full time made 117 percent of men’s wages, and even more in Dallas, 120 percent. Nationwide, that group of women made much less: 89 percent of the average full-time pay for men.

Just why young women at all educational levels in New York and other big cities have fared better than their peers elsewhere is a matter of some debate. But a major reason, experts say, is that women have been graduating from college in larger numbers than men, and that many of those women seem to be gravitating toward major urban areas.

In 2005, 53 percent of women in their 20s working in New York were college graduates, compared with only 38 percent of men of that age. And many of those women are not marrying right after college, leaving them freer to focus on building careers, experts said.

My former bosses, the Hon. Pat Carney and the Hon. Mary Collins, should feel particularly proud about how quickly things have changed in a single generation. The national wage rates are still not on par, and the representation levels in the C-suite and at board tables is still well below where they should be, but several thousand years of tradition are hopefully in the process of being erased before our eyes.

MRM