Persistent gender wage gap decreases in Mo.

Despite highly-publicized political efforts to the contrary, women still earn less then men in the workplace nationwide.

Missouri ranks in the bottom half of state averages. Women earning full-time wages and salaries brought in median weekly earnings of $660 during 2012, 78.5 percent of the median wage of their male counterparts, according to data by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Show-Me State’s full-time wage and salary male workers earned an $841 median per week during 2012.

The gender earnings gap in Missouri has decreased 3.8 percentage points since 2011. That ratio has ranged from a high of 80.8 percent in 1998 to a low of 73.5 percent in 2000. Nationally, women took home 80.9 percent of the wages earned by their male counterparts in 2012.

BLS economist Linda Nickisch said common reasons for gender wage gaps are based on industry educational attainment and age.

“Professions that are highly concentrated with women, such as education, don’t pay as high as some industries highly concentrated with men, such as engineering,” she said.

However, even within industries such as education, men are still paid more than women. According to the BLS report Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2012, the median weekly earnings for both men and women in the education, training and library occupations was $915, whereas just women in that category had earned $858 a week.

Nickisch said choices women must make to work, including personal and family breaks from the office, might cause them to miss out on promotion opportunities and professional experience, furthering the pay gap.

Kelley Still, executive director of the Edward Jones Center for Entrepreneurship at Drury University, said there is more to the equation. “At starting positions, you’ve got a balance of men and women,” she said. “Then there is this thinning at the top.”

Still said the reason for the thinning is multifaceted and often prejudiced.  

“It’s an attitude about family coming first, a woman not pushing herself because of her juggling between home and work, institutional politics,” Still said. “Some women say they can’t do it all, and scale back their job. Some people say that’s what women want to do – it’s about choice.

“But the wage gap and leadership gap is large enough that it’s not just about choices.”

Still said some experts believe institutional changes could help correct this factor in the wage gap by offering better maternity and paternity leave.  

Denise Heintz, director of operations and development at O’Reilly Development Co. LLC, was recently named a partner of the Springfield-based company, a move she said probably wouldn’t have happened 22 years ago when she began her career.

“I don’t feel the opportunity would have been there, all things equal. It has to do with the age of information now. Women are much more visible now, versus their work being routed through a higher-up,” she said. “The biggest difference in my position today than 10 or 20 years ago is largely due to who Pat O’Reilly is and the value he placed on my commitment to the company versus any expectation that I had or needed to feel personally accomplished.”   

Still said a need to feel personally accomplished is a contributing factor to the lack of women in leadership roles, which then also affects wage earnings. Heintz acknowledged the need to feel personally accomplished in her own career as she focused on her work ethic more than her title.

“A huge contributor to the statistics are who we are as women and that our drive and accomplishments are measured within, and therefore, we do not put ourselves out there as easily or competitively as men do,” she said. “It’s only been for the last four or five years that I’ve really focused on the importance of the position and title of my work.”

Heintz said her business success hasn’t come without sacrifice.

“A man can pursue his career to the fullest generally without compromise to his traditional role as a husband and father,” she said. “A woman who pursues her career to the fullest or same level cannot do it without compromise to her traditional role as a wife and mother.”

However, Heintz doesn’t think such issues are chauvinistic. “As a manager, I don’t think that’s a chauvinistic question,” she said, regarding mothers balancing work and family needs. “I ask the same question when I interview mothers, too.”

The trend of women executives continues to advance, Still said, with nearly as many women starting businesses as men. Nationally, women own nearly 29 percent of all businesses and 17 percent of businesses are owned equally by men and women, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent report in 2010.

According to the report, men owned 51.3 percent of all businesses at the time. Missouri women fell below the national average with 26 percent.

Locally, lending to women-owned businesses in the Springfield market is increasing. While the federal government doesn’t classify women as a minority in its lending practices, the U.S. Small Business Administration does collect data based on gender for statistical purposes, said Barbara Caldwell, public information officer and economic development specialist for the SBA’s Kansas City District Office.

In fiscal 2012, women in Springfield accounted for nearly 6 percent of its 909 7(a) and 504 loans. In fiscal 2013, the number of total loans dropped and the number of loans women received increased, leaving women in Springfield accounting for nearly 7 percent of its 890 loans. At the end of February, women in Springfield had secured nine of 291 loans through the SBA.