I read an article recently which suggests that single women make more money than single men in the U.S.
According to a study by Reach Advisors, in most major American cities the median income for single, childless women between 22 and 30 is 8% higher than that of their male counterparts 🙂
Research has shown that young women tend to be more educated than men, and are more likely to get degrees in the knowledge-based fields. Last year women earned the majority of Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, and the same results are expected for this year. Young women also appear to be more career driven. About 67% of females between 18 and 34 rank their professionals goals as top priority, compared with only 59% for young men.
Looks like all the efforts by society to encourage gender equality, elevate female status and their economic independence is really paying off 🙂 It’s no surprise that more and more women are becoming the primary breadwinner for their households. It looks like young men like myself should be careful lest we get left behind in the job market, lol.
But earlier this year the U.S. president came out with the following statement.
“Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment.”
~Barack Obama
Hm, this seems to contradict the other study. Nevertheless, assuming this was true, why aren’t there more female employees working on Wall St and other knowledge-based industries?
I thought companies were suppose to maximize profits for shareholders. Perhaps the 77 cents on the dollar statistic used by president Obama is outdated, or maybe it doesn’t tell the full story of the labor environment 😕 So I wonder – does the wage gap between men and women still exist in North America today?
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Random Useless Fact: The phenomenon below is called inattentional blindness, also known as perceptual blindness.
Yes it still exists. It’s partly due to the jobs we as women choose (avoiding STEM professions), our lack of negotiating skills and that employers look at us differently because we’re women and not men.
I can understand how some women may choose not to go into fields related to STEM, but it’s a shame that employers view women and men differently when hiring them for the same job 😕
As usual, more to this than meets the eye I believe. My wife owns a business with a partner (another female) in a largely female dominated profession. Yet, 4 out of 6 of their locations have managers who are males. My wife indicates it’s very clear that the guys are more vocal about wanting to be managers or partners, and are willing to do the extra work involved to get into those positions. On a number of occasions, some of the more senior ladies on staff have been approached about these opportunities, and they have almost always said no. So I don’t buy that the opportunities aren’t there, it’s that for whatever reason, men seem more willing to take “that next step” which comes with more work, responsibility and of course, higher pay.
Makes sense to me 🙂 I think it’s a different story in developing countries, but in Canada and the United States, I believe anyone, male or female, can achieve economic success if they’re willing to work hard, make sacrifices, and take on more career responsibilities.
Statistics… Humm, have I not commented on how these things work in the past? 4 out of 3 people have difficulties with math 😉 Personally I do believe there is a wage gap, which is narrowing… but only slightly… In certain fields though the gap is almost non-existent. Take engineering as an example as salaries are somewhat out there for most to see. I tend to believe more professional positions would have smaller gaps. Only my opinion though… Oh and for the picture, I thought it was going to be some crack (pun intended) about Lulumon (O-o) – Cheers.
I work with female engineers and they make more than me, but that’s because I’m an artist lol. I think if people looked hard enough they can find statistics to back up just about anything. Not easy to find unbiased research these days.
Ahh the wage gap. The $.77 per dollar argument is picking and choosing stats at it’s finest. When all variables are equal (age, experience, education, etc.) the gap is closer to women making around $.98 per dollar. Well within the margin of error. Of course stats like that make it hard to push a political agenda…
That’s cool. So the wage gap is still there, but it’s not as big as many people think it is. I think it’s good we’re moving in the right direction.
Female education is on the rise as well as incomes. Though income is increasing, some of the figure posted above are accurate. Two of the biggest determinants of gender income inequality are (1) whether they have any children and (2) whether or not they are married or single. I am planning on posting in depth on this soon. A couple other interesting facts are that women spend less time working, however, among those working 39 hours or less they outearn men. A couple links explaining the gap:
stlouisfed.org/publications/re/articles/?id=480
stlouisfed.org/publications/re/articles/?id=2160
Those certainly sound like important factors to consider when approaching this question. I think some studies are faulty because they lump women with and without children all together which doesn’t give a very accurate. Thanks for the articles.
I don’t think the gender wage gap exist in my country. Erick and Mia are my two software developer friends, they are working in the same company in the same year and they have the same salary
Good for them 😀 Sounds like they work for a very equal opportunity employer 😉
You should read ‘Lean In’ by Sheryl Sandberg if you haven’t already. It is targeted towards women, but I think it is a great read for everyone.
You’re right – it was good. It is ironic how she is outspoken about gender income inequality and makes some pretty strong points on how women’s workplace mannerisms can impact their earning power.
I’ve heard about her book. I’ll add it to my wish list 🙂
Women avoid to take risk, so, wall street is not the right place for them. But, in normal workplace, I would say women make more than men. Recently, I read an article at monster.ca, says attractive women have higher chance to hire with high salary than attractive(?) men.
I’ve also read that attractive people in general make more money than the average worker. Maybe women more so than men, I’m not sure.
I have also read lots of reviews about the wage gap, I have a friend who is currently working as a factory worker. She told me that the men have really had a higher salary compare to women.
It seems like in some professions like factory workers, fire fighters, and computer engineers, there seems to be more men with higher salary than women. But I’ve seen a study reporting women generally make more in nursing. I agree, there are certainly a lot of different opinions out there about the wage gap.
The wage gap still very much exists, but I don’t know whether the US experiences it to a higher degree than in Canada. I think you can find a sample that would disprove any study, if you tried, so I am sure that there are many studies that dispute this.
This appears to be a complicated topic which can be looked at from many different perspectives. Perhaps one day the studies can reach some kind of consensus like with climate change for example.