Study: Utah high in pay disparity
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]By Jeff DeMoss
Standard-Examiner staff
jdemoss@standard.net
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strong>Results show sharp inequity by gender
OGDEN -- More women are graduating from college than ever before, and for the first time, a woman is among the front-runners for the U.S. presidency. But females nationwide and in Utah are still earning significantly less than their male counterparts, according to a new study.
The Washington, D.C.-based American Association of University Women found that one year after college graduation, women working full-time nationwide earn nearly 35 percent less than what men earn. Ten years after graduation, the gap widens even more, the report found.
In Utah, the study found men with college degrees earned an annual average of $60,093 from 2003 to 2005, compared with $42,481 for women with degrees -- a 41.5 percent discrepancy.
"Women have made great strides in increasing their numbers and attendance in college," said Judy Goldberg Dey, an AAUW researcher on the study. "It just hasn't worked out to pay equity in the workplace."
Utah's earnings gap is the 10th widest among all states, according to the study.
"The bottom line is if a woman and a man want equal responsibility in the same job, the man will earn a little more," said Mark Knold, senior economist for the Utah Department of Workforce Services.
Utah culture tends to adhere to more traditional family values than other states, and women are more likely to focus their efforts on family, Knold said.
Even after controlling for hours, occupation, parenthood, and other factors known to affect earnings, the study found that 25 percent of the pay gap remains unexplained. The AAUW report said that portion of the gap is "likely due to sex discrimination."
"Over time, the unexplained portion of the pay gap grows," the group said in a news release.
Dey said part of the wage difference is a result of people's choices, and another part is employers' assumptions of what people's choices will be.
Students' individual choices explain part of the gap, she said. Engineering and computer-science majors typically command higher salaries than those with education or English degrees, and those technical fields draw fewer women than men nationwide.
"Some of that has to do with womens' choices of occupation," Dey said. "But some of the difference can't be explained by those choices, and that's what is disturbing to us."
Knold agreed that the gap shrinks when individual preferences are figured in.
Part of the earnings gap in Utah may also be explained by women choosing family over career advancement, he said.
"Someone here who might be on the tipping point between family and work might be more likely to tip back toward family," he said.
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