Gender wage gap persists

Women across the nation – and in the Show-Me State – are still earning less than men, but one local expert believes the wage gap is closing and progress is being made.

An analysis released last month by a national women’s advocacy group explored gender-based wage information in all of the country’s 435 congressional districts, revealing that in 97 percent of the districts, the median yearly pay for women is less than it is for men – to the tune of 77 cents on the dollar.

The disparity isn’t much better in Missouri or its 7th Congressional District, which includes Greene County.

According to the study by the National Partnership for Women and Families, applying data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the median yearly pay for women in Missouri is $9,281 less than the median yearly income for men. The wage gap represents 78 cents on the dollar. In the 7th Congressional District, men out-earn women by $9,464 a year, according to the study.

“It is stunning and deeply troubling to learn that the wage gap affects women in nearly every congressional district in the country,” said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership of Women and Families, in a statement that accompanied the release of the study. “Women and their families are losing critical income for food, gas, rent, health insurance and more due to a punishing gender-based wage gap that has plagued this country for decades.”

Kelley Still, executive director of the Edward Jones Center for Entrepreneurship at Drury University, said that the gap has closed significantly, partly because of positions such as nurses, doctors or teachers – that require specific training or credentials.

“You either meet the credentials or you don’t,” Still said.

She said the gap seems to surface as employees climb the ranks and take on more responsibility.

“Your job description and its value to the firm becomes more subjective,” she said. “And suddenly, there’s not a pay scale that defines what you do, and in those positions, we still see a big disparity.”

Some traits, such as leadership qualities, according to Still, are often attributed by company leaders to men.

“They really mean to be gender-equitable, but there are just biases entrenched in men that sometimes will … undervalue, perhaps, what females are adding to the firm,” Still said.

Still also noted women often undervalue their own abilities at work.

“They’re accepting a lower amount [in pay] because someone along the way has made them feel lucky that they got as far as they did,” she said. “So some of this we do to ourselves and some of it is just from biases that aren’t intentional at all, that are hard to overcome.”

However, positive steps have been taken concerning the issue, she said, with many women choosing to start their own businesses.

Still noted, too, that women have become very good at networking and seeking out other women who can mentor them.

“I think as we have more and more women in positions of commercial lending at banks ... it will be easier for women to attract capital to their business,” she said.

Edward Choate, director of human resources at Missouri State University, one of the region’s largest employers, said the gender wage-gap issue hasn’t been a major problem at the school, where the most common complaint from both genders stems from low pay.

“I’ve not heard it being gender-related,” Choate said. “I’ve worked at other institutions where gender was a factor to a large extent. But I’ve not seen that here.”

Choate said MSU has an equity process in place for faculty.

“That allows a faculty member to say, ‘I’m not getting paid what my peers are getting paid at other institutions,’” he said. “The fact that that’s working may be one reason I haven’t seen (the gender wage gap) as a major problem here.”

Though Choate said his office did not have data available comparing pay for men and women working in similar roles, he noted that the university takes steps to prevent pay inequities, with numerous factors involved in the hiring process.

“We pay people by credentials and experience,” he said. “Those two things always enter the picture.”

Despite the roadblocks, women rising through the ranks in the workplace is not uncommon, Still said.

“We do have work-life balance issues in this country to work on, which cause some women to feel like they have to drop out and not achieve everything than they could have achieved in their career,” she said. “I believe the progress is happening … and the opportunities for young women are tremendously better than they were even for me.”