Science!
Wednesday was Equal Pay Day, the day on which women's pay finally catches up to that of their male counterparts.
They say that a woman has to work from January 1 through March 24, 2021, in addition to all of calendar year 2020, to make as much money as a guy who worked only in calendar year 2020.
An outrage, right? Not so fast.
Here are some FAQs to read before you run out and sue your employer for pay discrimination.
What was the gender pay gap in 2020?
It depends on which version of the "gap" you're talking about. One organization, PayScale, distinguishes between an "uncontrolled" pay gap and a "controlled" pay gap. This is very important to keep in mind.
What's an "uncontrolled" pay gap? Does that mean the gap is completely out of control?
Haha, that was funny. No. "Uncontrolled" is used in the statistical sense. The "uncontrolled" pay gap is the one you read about in the news. It compares the average pay of all women in the workforce with the average pay of all men in the workforce. That's it. In 2020, all women averaged about 82 cents for every dollar that all men averaged.
This gap is called the "uncontrolled" gap because it doesn't control for any factors that might affect pay except sex.
So, a "controlled" pay gap would be one that took the other factors into account?
Yes. The "controlled" gap is the meaningful one. There is still a gender pay gap when using the "controlled" numbers, but it is dramatically smaller than the "uncontrolled" gap. When you control for the other factors that could affect pay, women make about 98 cents for every dollar that men make.
That is quite a difference!
Yes, it is. Can you please pass that along to the federal government? Thanks in advance!
What factors does the "controlled" number take into account?
Position held (for example, Chief Executive Officer versus receptionist), industry (for example, heavy manufacturing versus restaurant and hospitality versus health care versus teaching K-12), full-time versus part-time, number and duration of career interruptions, number of years in the workforce, educational background, location (urban versus rural, Mississippi versus California), you name it. All of these affect a person's pay.
Can you give me a few examples of how these factors would weigh against women?
Sure. A 2018 PayScale study found that career interruptions -- especially those of one year or more -- are a big contributor to the gender pay gap. Women are statistically more likely than men to take time off from their paying jobs, often because of those adorable tiny humans whom someone has to take care of intensively for the first few years of life. Daddies are less likely to quit their jobs to do that, although some do. When you compare populations rather than individuals, women are more likely to have career interruptions while their male counterparts are more likely to be continuously plugging away at their paying jobs. Then, when the moms return to work, they are behind, and their pay may never quite catch up.
For similar reasons, women as a population are more likely than men to work part-time, or to voluntarily take jobs with less opportunity for advancement because they want or need to have time for their family responsibilities.
Isn't that sexist right there? That women have to be the ones to take breaks from their careers to take care of the kids while men can keep working, advancing, and making the big bucks?
That depends on your values. If family is important to you, then it may be a privilege rather than an injustice. If career advancement is your priority, then maybe it's an injustice. Either way, it's not your employer's fault. These are personal choices that people make (or, if you prefer, the result of the systemic sex discrimination in our patriarchal society). If one employee chooses to quit working at a paying job for five years and another employee keeps at it, and if all other things are equal, then it is not discriminatory for the employer to pay more to the employee who kept at it. In fact, it would be illogical for the employer to do anything else.
I've read that the COVID pandemic disproportionately affected women because more women than men had to quit their jobs, switch to part-time, or take extended leaves so they could provide child care to their little ones, or home-school or supervise distance learning for older kids. How did that affect the pay gap in 2020?
It's hard to tell because the government's wage statistics measure only people who are actually in the workforce. The numbers would not take into account people who had to drop out entirely. My guess is that women in jobs that couldn't accommodate remote work may have had to drop out in greater proportions than their male counterparts in similar jobs. But that is only a guess. And, again, assuming that happened, it is not a result of discrimination by employers. We're back to that "personal choice or sexist society" issue.
The other thing to keep in mind is that an accurate measure of the "COVID effect" will have to take into account how men and women are distributed in jobs that can and can't be performed remotely. Last year would have been very tough on waitresses and hotel housekeepers, but maybe also on bartenders and employees of manufacturing plants that had to shut down because their work was not deemed "essential" and social distancing was not possible. On the other hand, executives, lawyers, accountants, HR professionals, IT professionals, teachers, bookkeepers, and administrative assistants were, for the most part, able to keep doing their work from home. I'm not fully convinced that the pandemic had a disparate impact based on sex. But it might have. We'll see.
Does the gender pay gap vary depending on age?
Yes. The latest PayScale study showed that the pay gap is almost nonexistent for employees in their 20s but gradually widens as employees get older. My guess is that a lot of that "widening" may be a result of the same career interruptions and family choices that we've already been talking about, especially now that people wait longer to start their families.
Are you a wage gap denier?
Not at all! I have no doubt that women generally, as a population, make less money than men generally, as a population. I believe the government's statistics that, when you compare all women to all men with no other controls, women make 82 cents for every dollar men make. But we should not be focused on this "uncontrolled" group, where there could be a million explanations for the gap that have nothing to do with unlawful discrimination.
And another thing that proves I'm not a denier. I don't understand why women in the "controlled" group are earning even 2 cents less than their comparable male counterparts. Is that due to discrimination? Could be, if all the other explanations have been ruled out. But a 2-cent gap will be a lot easier to fix than an 18-cent gap. And the initiatives taken by some states (for example, banning questions about salary history) and some advocacy groups and career coaches (for example, encouraging women to negotiate over their pay) may go a long way toward closing this small, still-unexplained, gap.
And that's my two cents.
Image Credits: Still images from flickr, Creative Commons license: Two cents by yatoobin; Marty Walsh, our new Secretary of Labor, by Dave Parsons; adorable baby by Dan Harrelson; "Thanks [for nothing!] COVID-19" by Mike Finn.
- Partner
Robin has more than 30 years' experience counseling employers and representing them before government agencies and in employment litigation involving Title VII and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with ...
Robin Shea has 30 years' experience in employment litigation, including Title VII and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (including the Amendments Act).
Continue Reading
Subscribe
Contributors
- William A. "Zan" Blue, Jr.
- Obasi Bryant
- Kenneth P. Carlson, Jr.
- James M. Coleman
- Cara Yates Crotty
- Lara C. de Leon
- Christopher R. Deubert
- Joyce M. Dos Santos
- Colin Finnegan
- Steven B. Katz
- Ellen C. Kearns
- F. Damon Kitchen
- David C. Kurtz
- Angelique Groza Lyons
- John E. MacDonald
- Alyssa K. Peters
- Sarah M. Phaff
- David P. Phippen
- William K. Principe
- Sabrina M. Punia-Ly
- Angela L. Rapko
- Rachael Rustmann
- Paul Ryan
- Robin E. Shea
- Kristine Marie Sims
- David L. Smith
- Jill S. Stricklin
- Jack R. Wallace
Archives
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010