Study finds women closing hourly pay gap
By Andrea Coombes
CBS MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO — Women's hourly pay nearly matches men's, fathers are spending more time with their children, and employees report more family-friendly workplaces. To some, it sounds like a near-perfect world.
But wait: Women's annual salaries still lag, couples are working longer hours, and more employees say it's now difficult to balance family and work, according to the latest National Study of the Changing Workforce. It's conducted every five years by the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit research group.
"The net is that some things have gotten better but some things have gotten worse, and individual workers are paying a bit of a price," said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute.
Women's average hourly wage is $19.16, not far off men's $22.29, according to the telephone survey of 3,500 working Americans of all income levels, ages 18 years or older.
Compare that with the $15.05 average hourly pay garnered by women versus the $21.38 earned by men in 1997.
The wage rise is based in part on women's increasing participation in management-level and professional jobs, which is in turn because of more women in the workforce, their higher levels of education and corporate America's push to break the glass ceiling, Galinsky said.
Thirty-nine percent of women hold managerial or professional positions, up from 24 percent in 1977. The jobs range from chief executive to convenience store manager.
In contrast, the number of men in these jobs has held steady, at 30 percent, across that time span.
But, while the hourly outlook has improved, women's annual salaries still fall short of men's. Women earn $36,716 on average each year compared with $52,908 for men, according to the study.
The reasons for that disparity are many, but the top two drivers are that more women engage in part-time work and, overall, work fewer hours than men, Galinsky said.
Twenty-four percent of women work a part-time job, compared with 9 percent of men, and overall, women work an average of about 40 hours a week to men's 46 hours.
Not many would argue with the idea that the more hours you work, the more you should be paid, but Galinsky points out that there's still a hidden bias in the workplace: The base salary for a part-time worker is often lower than the base salary of a full-time worker.
"We've had a perception of part-time or more flexible jobs as second-class jobs and they are clearly paid accordingly," she said, adding that performance should play a greater part in salary levels, as opposed to simply full- and part-time status.
"I have employees here who don't work full time but who deliver huge value. They're paid for the time that they work, but their salaries are high because they deliver huge value," she said. "You just don't devalue a part-time job."
As men make inroads into the childcare and housework arena, that negative perception of flex- and part-time work may change.
"It will certainly become a more socially acceptable conversation to have," Galinsky said. "If he's going to take time off to take care of his elderly mother, then his question will be: 'Certainly I should be paid for my hours, but should my whole salary drop? Should I move into a second-class job?' "
Men now spend 2.7 hours on average with their children on weekdays, up from 1.9 hours in 1977, among dual-earner households, according to the report.
Meanwhile, women's time with kids on workdays rose slightly to 3.5 hours from 3.3 in 1977.
The combined 6.2 hours of kid-time is up from the 5.2 hours spent with kids in 1977.
Couples are managing this extra time with their kids even though they're working longer hours than before. Among dual-earner couples with kids, the average combined workweek is 91 hours long, up from 81 hours in 1977.
Among all couples, including dual- and single-earners, the average combined workweek is 82 hours long, up from 70 hours in 1977.
To find that extra time for children, many parents are forgoing time spent on themselves: Men spent an average of 1.3 hours for personal time during the week, down from 2.1 hours in 1977.
And women found about 55 minutes for themselves, down from 1.6 hours in the earlier study.
Men are also doing more work around the house, adding 42 minutes to their weekday chores for a total of two hours.
That has allowed working women to reduce their time on chores by the same amount, for a total of three hours per week. The combined total of five hours spent on household chores during the workweek hasn't changed in 25 years.
While workers are slightly more likely to report family-friendly policies at work than in the past, more also report difficulty balancing families and work.
For instance, 43 percent of workers say they have some flexibility periodically to change their start and ending times, up from 29 percent in 1992.
And 23 percent say they can set their start and quit times each day, up from 18 percent in 1992.
Yet, 45 percent of married workers, with or without children, reported some or a lot of interference between their work and family lives, up from 34 percent in 1977.
More "people believe their bosses are responsive to personal or family issues than did 10 years ago," Galinsky said. "People are more positive about a culture that's more family-friendly than 10 years ago, and people have more access to flexibility than 10 and 25 years ago.
"That said, the people feeling pulled between their jobs and family life has also gone up. Work has become more demanding, and technology has blurred the lines between when you're working and when you're not."
