Poverty in America – wage parity between the sexes
Wage parity is the measure of how close wages and salaries for women come to those for men, It is recorded as a percentage with 100% being equal pay or parity.
From a historical perspective, the parity ratio has been showing gains for women for some time. Click on the graph for a larger image.
historical graph of female to male wage parity through 2008
The Census Bureau’s report titled Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008 has contained a section on wage parity between men and women for some time. It does not get much play in the media because it is a sterling record for the Bush administration. In his eight years in office, parity set four new records. The previous record, in 1997, was two percentage points less than the lowest parity percentage for the Bush administration’s tenure in office. Click on the graph for a larger image.
Historical graph showing female to male wage parity from 1990 through 2008 including the four records set during the Bush administration
Some of the difference is biological. Women still receive an ersatz penalty in their careers for taking time out to have children. We have also speculated that the change in the type of economy, to post-industrial or information, may also render some of the economic measurements of the past less accurate and less revealing.
The media are stating that the job losses during this recession are being borne mostly by men. This suggests the speculation that the 2009 Census report may find a new record parity as the economic situation forces more men into lower paying jobs or onto unemployment, thus raising the female side of the ratio.
Table of contents for Poverty in America in 2008
- Poverty in America – 2008 overview
- Poverty in America – 2008 health insurance coverage
- Poverty in America – wage parity between the sexes
- Poverty in America – black poverty issues
the attachments to this post:
wage parity for 2008 – 2
wage parity for 2008 – 1
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at 11:00 am and is filed under American Economy, Original writing, Analysis, Original writing, American Economy, Poverty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
