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US women earn half the income of men: Study

Thursday, 29 November 2018 11:12 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 29 November 2018 11:17 AM ]

American women are earning half the income of men, a new study says.

American women were paid roughly half of what men have earned for doing the same job over the past 15 years, considering time off for family or child care, according to a new study

The report, released on Wednesday by the Washington-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research, found that the gender pay gap between 2001 and 2015 has been far greater than it was previously assumed.

According to the report, women’s income was 51 percent less than that of men when taking into account time with no income.

Dubbed “Still a Man’s Labor Market,” the study showed that the wage gap had narrowed since 1968, with inflation-adjusted income for women rising to an average of $29,000 between 2001 and 2015, compared with $14,000 from 1968 to 1982.

However, women are almost twice as likely as men to take at least one year off work which means during their years on the job, they will earn an average of 39 percent less than men, according to the study.

The study noted that while companies were likely to pay their employees less regardless of their gender in case they left for some time, women were still more often hurt by such pay cuts because they were more likely to take time off.

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“Much ink has been spilled debating whether the commonly cited measure of the wage gap - that women earn 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man - is an exaggeration due to occupational differences or so-called ‘women’s choices’,” said Heidi Hartmann, president of the institute and a co-author of the study.

“But our analysis finds that we have actually been underestimating the extent of pay inequality in the labor market,” she added.

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