The Blade (Toledo, Ohio), September 2, 2007, Sunday

Copyright 2007 The Blade

The Blade (Toledo, Ohio)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

September 2, 2007 Sunday

SECTION: BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL NEWS

HEADLINE: Ohio women narrow wage gap with men

BYLINE: Mark Reiter, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio

BODY:

Sep. 2--OHIO WOMEN still trail the state's men in pay, but the gap between their hourly wages -- nearly $3 -- is the smallest that it has ever been, according to a report released today.

Women's median wage in 2006 of $13.16 an hour was 22 percent less than that of their male counterparts, according to the report compiled by Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland nonprofit research group.

"Women are making more money than they have ever made in the past," said Amy Hanauer, executive director of Policy Matters. "However, it is important to note that there is still a 22 percent gap in the average wages between men and women. That is nothing to be scoffed at."

The report, released on Labor Day weekend, analyzes employment and demographic information. The think tank looked at Ohio wages, household income, education, and employee productivity numbers and examined whether low and moderate-wage workers are falling behind economically.

Improvements made by women have not been lost on Sheri Caldwell, who is vice president of human resources at Hickory Farms in Maumee.

Ms. Caldwell, 41, said she has noticed a shift in the male dominance in executive and management positions within her company from two years ago, when the firm had only one woman vice president.

"I absolutely see women catching up, and depending on the field, the salary for women can be higher than for men," she said.

Disappearance of higher-paying manufacturing jobs historically held by men was among the factors in the women's gain, said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute.

"Men are working in jobs that are retracting," she said. "At the same time, women are moving into jobs that are expanding." Between 1979 and 2006, Ohio's proportion of employed women over the age of 16 increased from 50 percent to nearly 62 percent, and employed men in the same age group declined about 7 percentage points to 73 percent, the report said.

It said the state has lost more than 158,000 jobs since 2002 and suffered a 21 percent decline in manufacturing jobs since 2001.

A report released in April by the Institute for Women's Policy Research was less optimistic about the pay disparity between genders.

Using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nonprofit group said the wage gap between genders failed to narrow in 2006, and that the 77 cents paid to women for every dollar paid to men was slightly better than the 76.3 cents of 2001.

The 77-cent figure was among the statistics released last week bythe U.S. Census Bureau in a report on poverty in the country. Median earnings for both men and women declined more than 1 percent in 2006, the bureau said.

The lack of women in math, science, and computer-based careers has slowed women's progress in attaining pay equity, said Barb Gault, vice president and director of research for the Institute for Women's Policy Research in Washington.

Research by her group indicates that only 17 percent of women have achieved partner status in law firms, and women account for fewer than half of the medical doctors in the country.

"I think people are generally unaware of how gender-segregated the labor force in this country really is," she said. "There has been no progress in terms of the wage gap between men and women, and there has been no progress in the last few years."

The institute reported in February that Ohio ranks 25th in the nation in women's employment and earnings.

During the 32 years that she has been an architect, Louise Schlatter said, she witnessed a significant jump in the number of women entering the profession and an acceptance that women are as capable and as qualified as men in the industry.

Ms. Schlatter, a department manager at the Toledo architectural and engineering firm SSOE Inc., where she has been since 1986, recalled the early days of her career when she was told that women did not belong in the industry.

Economist Kathryn Kobe said women's shift from part-time to full-time work and their decisions to take less time off to raise families were among the factors that narrowed the pay gap.

"Traditionally, men do not have part-time jobs when compared to women," said Ms. Kobe, of Economic Consulting Services.

A trend of women entering well-paying career fields formerly dominated by men is playing into the wage picture, said Francine Blau, a professor of economics in labor and industrial relations at Cornell University.

"Men are staying in school much longer than they used to," she said. "There is also the disturbing trend of men retiring in the prime of their working age."

The Policy Matters report showed that Ohioans, whose average hourly pay is $14.76, gained in their efforts to close the gap to reach the average national wage of $14.81. The year-to-year increase in the state average wage was the second consecutively, reversing a decline that occurred between 2000 and 2004.

The report also found that the working hours of two-parent families jumped 17 percent since 1979.

Contact Mark Reiter at:markreiter@theblade.com or419-724-6096.

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