FAQs on Equal Pay

Why Is There a Wage Gap?
Part of the wage gap reflects the concentration of women and people of color in a range of jobs that are underpaid because we don't adequately value work that's done by women and members of minority groups. More than half of all women workers hold sales, clerical, caregiving and service jobs. Studies show that the more women or people of color dominate an occupation, the less it pays. Women may willfully choose to be childcare workers (in fact 98 percent of these workers are women), but they hardly choose to live in poverty as a result. Granted, differences in education, experience or time in the workforce contribute to the wage gap, but a significant portion of the gap is simply due to discrimination. Regardless of occupation or title, women are often paid less than their equals. How else explain why women managers and administrators earn 65 cents to a $1 compared to their male counterparts? Why female computer programmers earn 81 cents? Why women elementary school teachers earn 89 cents? Even male nurses, a minority of the profession, earn considerably more than female nurses.

Hasn't the Wage Gap Closed Considerably In Recent Years?
Despite the fact that American women, as a group, are better educated, take less time off after childbirth, and have access to and hold a broader array of jobs than ever before, the wage gap has only narrowed by about 11 percentage points during the last 18 years, ranging from 62 percent in 1982 to 73 percent in 2000. Since 1973 however, approximately 60 percent of the change in the wage gap has been due to the drop in men’s earnings, and only about 40 percent of the change in the wage gap has been due to the increase in women’s wages. The wage gap has fluctuated often, ranging from a low of 57 percent in the early 1970's, and peaking at 74 percent in 1997.

Is It Possible to Compare Different Jobs?
Yes, jobs can be compared based on their overall skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. In fact, many employers have used job evaluations for nearly a century to set pay and rank for different occupations within a company or organization. Today, two out of three workers are employed by firms that use some form of job evaluation. The federal government, the nation's largest employer, has a 70-year-old job evaluation system that covers nearly 2 million employees.

Who Really Needs Equal Pay?
Women, people of color, and white men who work in jobs that have been undervalued due to race or sex bias need equal pay. But the impact of wage discrimination reaches beyond individual employees. Many of these workers earn the majority of their family’s income or are the sole support for their families. According to the Center for Policy Alternatives’/Lifetime Television’s Women’s Voices 2000 poll, 66 percent of women say that they earn half or more than half of their families’ income. Further, discriminatory pay has consequences as people age – lower lifetime earnings translate into lower pensions and benefits into retirement.

Is Equal Pay an Effective Strategy to Move People out of Poverty?
Yes, equal pay helps workers become self-sufficient and reduces their reliance on government assistance programs. A recent study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and the AFL-CIO found that if married women were paid the same as men doing comparable work, their family incomes would rise by nearly six percent, and their families’ poverty rates would fall from 2.1 percent to 0.8 percent. If single working mothers earned as much as men doing comparable work, their family incomes would increase by nearly 17 percent, and their poverty rates would be cut in half, from 24.3 percent to 12.6 percent.

Will White Men's Wages Be Reduced if Equal Pay is Implemented?
No, federal law prohibits reducing pay for any employee to remedy discrimination. Furthermore, male workers in female-dominated job sectors benefit when sex discrimination is eliminated, as do white workers in minority-dominated jobs. Equal pay means equal treatment for all workers.

Will Achieving Equal Pay Require a National Wage-Setting System?
No, equal pay policy proposals do not mandate an across-the-board salary structure for any occupation, nor does it tamper with supply and demand. It means that an employer cannot pay employees within their company or organization different wages based on race, sex or ethnicity. It means that wages must be based on job requirements like skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions without consideration of race, sex, or ethnicity.

Doesn't Pay Equity Cost Employers Too Much?
In Minnesota, where pay equity legislation meant raises for 30,000 state employees, the cost was only 3.7 percent of the state's payroll budget over a four-year period. In Washington state, equal pay was achieved at a cost of 2.6 percent of the state's personnel costs and was implemented over an eight-year period. Voluntary implementation of equal pay is cost effective, while court-ordered equal pay adjustments can lead to greater costs.

Are Wage Inequalities the Result of Women's Choices?
Although it is the prevailing argument from those opposed to equal pay policies, only part of the wage gap can be attributed to differences in education, experiences and time in the workforce. However, a significant portion of the wage gap is simply due to discrimination. Overwhelming evidence that wage discrimination persists in America can be found in numerous court cases and legal settlements, Department of Labor investigations, surveys of men and women on the job, and salary surveys that control for age, experience and time in the workforce. In 2000, there were 7,056 wage discrimination complaints made to the EEOC. The number could be even higher if workers had a right to review confidential wage information. Further, the wage gap is seen across occupations. Women in managerial and executive positions, female physicians and female computer programmers earn less than their male counterparts.

While women sometimes take time out of the workforce to raise children, it should be noted that when couples are deciding who should stay home with children, the fact that the wife is earning a lower salary impacts that decision. In addition, women may not be choosing the lower paying jobs. They may have trouble advancing in a company due to bias about women's abilities or commitment to the job.

Will Implementing Equal Pay Disrupt the Economy?
No. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act, minimum wage, and child labor laws all provoked the same concerns and all were implemented without major disruption. What disrupts the economy and penalizes families is the systematic underpayment of workers based on their sex or race. When wages for women and people of color are raised, their purchasing power will increase, strengthening the economy.

Why Do Some People Dispute that a Wage Gap Exists?
Years of solid economic research show that a large wage gap exists among women’s and men’s earnings. Any so-called "research" that says otherwise doesn’t withstand mainstream economic analysis and the mountain of anecdotal evidence of women getting shortchanged in the workplace.

Compiled by the National Committee on Pay Equity with additions by the Center for Policy Alternatives.

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