(NUI) - Women's earnings are more important to families than ever before. Sixty-four percent of all married couple families with children depend on the earnings of both working mothers and fathers. And 18 percent of families are maintained by single women.
Yet, in 1997, working women earned only 74 percent of men's weekly earnings on average. That means the average woman would have to work from January of 1997 to April 3 of 1998 to earn what the average man earned in 1997 alone. For women of color, the wage gap is even worse.
Some of the disparity between the salaries of men and women is due to their different hours of work, occupational choices and levels of experience. However, not all of the wage gap can be attributed to these factors. In February of 1998, the Congressional Research Service prepared a report for the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues and concluded that although the "unexplained portion" of the gap has narrowed in recent years, it still exists -- and discrimination is a real factor to consider in accounting for it.
Companies wanting to attract and retain the brightest workers need to ensure that compensation policies value and reward workers fairly. Women represent a significant portion of the skilled and educated workforce, accounting for more than half of all those graduating from college today and nearly half of all those earning masters and professional degrees. If businesses ignore wage gap issues, they will shortchange themselves in less-productive, less-motivated and less-loyal workers.
The Labor Department's Women's Bureau, which was created by Congress in 1920 to "promote the welfare of wage-earning women in the workforce," has established the Fair Pay Clearinghouse to provide individuals, employers and other organizations information on pay issues including: wage and occupation information on women of different races, ethnic origins, ages and educational backgrounds; referrals to resource organizations active on pay issues; information on pay adjustments made by employers across the country; and details on state and federal fair pay laws.
There is also a guide for women on how to ask for the wages that they deserve and a brochure encouraging employers to improve women's pay as a strategy for retaining the best, brightest and most productive workers.
More information is available by calling the Fair Pay Clearinghouse at 1-800-347-3741; on the Internet at www.dol.gov/dol/wb/; or by writing to U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Suite 3311, Washington, DC 20210.
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