Poverty in America 2005 - the Sexes
UPDATE: [I forgot the link sigh]The Census Bureau has issued its annual report on poverty in the United States.
This is a statistic that the Bush Administration should be shouting from the roof tops. Record wage parity for women, .77:1, 77%. Wage parity between women and men is at record levels under the Bush administration. Bush’s worst year of the five is still over a percentage point higher than Clinton’s best year. How come NOW isn’t rejoicing in the Bush Presidency?
The nature of our social structure and our anatomy mean that the ratio will never be 1:1. Women will keep having babies and that will continue to produce a wage gap. Experts can probably tell you what the ratio ought to be in a perfect world. I can tell you with some confidence that it’s somewhere between 77% and 100%, and probably not at either end of that span.
It’s not just pregnancy. Look at sports. The number of highly paid male athletes is far higher than the number of highly paid women athletes. That is a gap produced by our society that will not be overcome in the near future.
The climb towards wage parity continues, and the record numbers under Bush are a sign that societal change is driving the issue. I would not be surprised to see the gap close to 80% by the end of Bush’s second term.
| POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES 2005 | ||||
| Overview | Race | Sex | 2004 | 2003 |
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