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BUSINESS
THE MESA TRIBUNE | MARCH 20, 2022
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Gender wage gap has not narrowed – may widen BY EMILY SACIA Cronkite News
women educators made 87 cents to male educators’ ASHINGTON – The dollar, and female customwage gap that had er service representatives been narrowing made 89 cents per dollar. between men and women But experts pointed out stalled in 2019, according to that those numbers were new numbers from the Cenfrom before the pandemic, sus Bureau, and advocates which hit women workers fear the situation will only harder than men. get worse when pandemic“Women were impacted, era data is released. both at the beginning of The gap improved in the pandemic, and now two both Arizona and the U.S. years in, we’re seeing womas a whole over the last five en at a whole different kind years, but the pace of change of range also being impacthas been slow and is getting ed by the pandemic,” Baraslower. jas-Román said. “We know “The most recent research that’s going to have a deep has shown that women in impact on wage equality in the labor force are at a 33the future.” year low following the panExperts agree that the demic,” said Elizabeth Barapandemic had a negative jas-Román, president and effect on women workers CEO of the Women’s Funding This chart shows how the wage gap between women and men differs among the states. (U.S. Census Bureau) across the board, but they Network. “At this pace, we say it disproportionately won’t close that wage gap until 2157.” The gap is wider and the pace of gains dustry in Arizona. Women in farming, affected working-class women, some On average, women who worked full is slower for women of color, disabled fishing and forestry occupations earned of whom were furloughed or reduced time and year-round in the United States or LGBTQ women who experience pay 44% of what their male counterparts to working part time, or who were earned 81 cents in 2019 for every dol- disparities disproportionately to non- earned in 2019, for example, while wom- forced to take on extra responsibilities lar their male counterparts made. That Hispanic white women. en in health diagnosing earned 59% and at home. was down from 81.1 cents in 2018, but “The labor force effects were much, “Women earn 83 cents on the dollar, women in construction and extraction still represented a better than 1-cent in- but really that breaks down when we jobs earned 66%. much bigger for working-class women crease since 2015. happen to look at race,” said Christian F. The most-popular occupations for than for women with at least a bachelor’s In Arizona, men’s wages averaged Nunes, president at the National Orga- women in Arizona were customer ser- degree,” Brown said. During his State of the Union address $50,069 in 2019, compared to $41,617 nization for Women. “It’s really a white vice representatives, nurses and elemenfor women that year, according to the woman earning 83 cents on the white tary and middle school teachers. But this month, President Joe Biden touted bureau, or 83 cents of income for a man’s dollar.” even those predominantly women-led several initiatives he said would help get women back in the workforce, including man’s dollar. While Arizona women did Nationally, there’s no industry where industries experienced pay inequity. better than the nation as a whole, their women’s earnings exceeded men’s, re“There’s definitely no guarantee that proposals to cut the cost of child care and gain since 2015 was only 0.4% – and the gardless of the worker’s educational just because an industry or an occupa- expand pre-K education. Nunes welcomed those efforts, but said state’s wage gap actually widened by 2 background and prior experience. tion is women-dominated, that there’s cents since 2017. In Arizona, women did make more going to be more pay parity there,” much more needs to be done. And soon. “This is a whole-system issue. There “On a national scale and in Arizona, than men in 2019 in one field: installa- Brown said. “There’s definitely a gap for it hasn’t really been closing that much tion, maintenance and repair occupa- example, in health care and social assis- are things that Arizona can do … at the and it’s been a fairly slow process,” said tions, where they earned $1.07 for every tance and in education, where you would state level to make sure that they’re takHayley Brown, a research associate at dollar a man made. But in every other theoretically expect that gap to be small ing care of their residents,” she said. “You don’t always have to wait for the federal the Center for Economic and Policy Re- industry, women fell short. to nonexistent.” search. But the wage gap varied widely by inThe Census Bureau data showed that government to do things.”
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