Friday, October 19, 2012
State By State Wage Gap
This map of the United States shows the amount of money women earn compared to every dollar men earn. The ratio for Michigan is women $0.62: men $1.00. See which states are the worst and which are better (even though no state is close to equality), and see where your home state falls.
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I understand that wage parity is a serious issue, but the methodology of this article is flawed, rather than assessing the pay differentials in equivalent jobs, it simply compares the pay rates of the sexes. Many studies have shown that women and men select different types of careers, and that those selected by women tend to be less math and science focused, and thus pay less. This may be an issue unto itself, but it is much more complicated than simple pay parity.
ReplyDeleteThe response above bring up a very good point. Statistics are a tool, but often do not tell the whole story. In addition to the point above, I recently read an article explaining what one study found to be a major reason for pay differences between men and woman. The study explained that often women's personalities tend to lean toward problem solving and dispute resolution. Very useful skills, but can backfire in contract negotiations. Men tended to score as more stubborn and thus negotiated higher contracts. This means that the issue of pay differences does not lie on the shoulders of businesses or the government, but on individuals themselves. We live in a an age of greater equality then any other time in history, perhaps the infrastructure we use is fixed, but the data has not had due time to reflect the change.
ReplyDeleteTravis, are you trying to say that women get paid less because they are not as good as men overall at negotiating for higher wages?
ReplyDeleteStatistical variations aside, when breaking the map down to the county level some interesting counties arise where women are paid more than men. I would be interested to see what makes Loving, Texas or Sierra, New Mexico so positive for women. Specifically, what kind of demographical or political differences make these numbers possible.
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