Women in America get paid less?
According to a 2003 report by the government’s General Accounting Office, women working full time are paid only around three-fourths of what their male counterparts make. Other reports posit similar numbers: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, in 2003, women earned on average 76 cents for every dollar a man made, down from 77 cents in 2002 but up from 64 cents a quarter-century ago. While there are many factors that account for this discrepancy, the report found that it mostly had to do with work patterns.
In the United States, the report found, women tend to work fewer hours per year and leave the labor force for longer periods of time than men. For example, men worked an average of 2147 hours per year while women worked 1675; around 88 percent of men were involved in full-time work, compared with 67 percent of women. Industry, occupation, race, marital status and job tenure were other factors that contributed to this discrepancy.
However, even these factors can’t account entirely for the earnings difference between men and women in America. Some experts feel that discrimination against women in the workplace may also affect their earnings, or that a proportion of women trade off workplace advancement in order to more effectively manage family concerns.