Inequality of Pay

I thought I'd take a look at some differences between men and women in the workplace, in terms of types of jobs and income.  The US Department of Labor has some statistics about this (see below).  This particular chart shows a list of 30 of the more common occupations for women.  Even though these are common for women, these positions are not always predominantly filled by women.  At any rate, men's median weekly earnings are higher than women's median weekly earnings for all 30 of the occupations.  That really struck me as amazing.  I thought we as a society were past inequality of pay, but apparently not.  And this was true even in fields that were predominantly female.  90% of registered nurses are female, and the median weekly earnings are still less than the male nurses.  I find this mind boggling.




http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/leadoccupations.htm

30 Leading occupations for employed women by selected characteristics (2013 annual averages)

Occupation name	Total number of women employed (in thousands)	Women as a percent of total employed in the occupation1	Women's Median weekly earnings	Men's Median weekly earnings
All occupations	46,268	47%	$706	$860
Elementary and middle school teachers	2138	81%	$937	$1025
Secretaries and administrative assistants	2113	94%	$677	$772
Registered nurses	2023	90%	$1086	$1236
Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides	1207	89%	$450	$499
Customer service representatives	1068	66%	$616	$639
First-line supervisors of retail sales workers	981	43%	$612	$778
Accountants and auditors	945	62%	$1029	$1268
Cashiers	932	72%	$379	$426
Managers, all other	905	34%	$1105	$1399
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	828	70%	$748	$846
Receptionists and information clerks	828	92%	$527	$600
Retail salespersons	737	50%	$485	$719
Office clerks, general	734	84%	$596	$620
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	702	89%	$670	$751
Financial managers	613	55%	$1064	$1518
Maids and housekeeping cleaners	605	88%	$406	$467
Waiters and waitresses	558	70%	$400	$449
Personal care aides	539	84%	$445	$470
Secondary school teachers	529	57%	$986	$1093
Social workers	507	80%	$818	$978
Teacher assistants	501	89%	$475	$501
Preschool and kindergarten teachers	484	98%	$624	$ -
Education administrators	450	64%	$1130	$1543
Postsecondary teachers	424	50%	$1100	$1338
Janitors and building cleaners	421	33%	$418	$517
Cooks	418	40%	$382	$411
Childcare workers	410	95%	$418	$ -
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses	404	92%	$732	$ -
Counselors	391	69%	$884	$889
Billing and posting clerks	380	92%	$629	$ -
Notes: 1. All data (unless otherwise noted) are 2013 annual averages for full-time wage and salary workers only, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.htm 2. Women as a percent of total employed are 2013 annual averages for all people employed (includes part-time and self-employed), from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm 3. Dash indicates no data available or base is less than 50,000. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey