State women fare worse than average in wage gap

May 4--When Valerie Moll's friend took a management job at a trucking company several years ago, he started at $29 per hour.

When Moll asked about the same job, she was told the pay would be $10 per hour.

Moll believes she was quoted the lower wage because of her gender.

"I wasn't surprised," said Moll, who once managed a trucking business owned by her family in the Lebanon area. "You just know that happens."

Moll's experience might not be that uncommon, according to Pennsylvania State Data Center researchers, who recently found that women statewide earn 74.5 percent of what men are paid annually. Women in management earn less: 48 percent of the earnings of men in similar positions, according to the researchers.

The data center's report, "Closing the Earnings Gap in Pennsylvania," was based on the incomes of full-time workers compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau's 2004 American Community Survey.

Although the state's gender gap in wages has narrowed during the past 25 years, it's still wider than the national average, said Susan D. Copella, the center's director and one of the report's authors.

Nationwide, a woman receives about 76.5 cents for every $1 that a man earns in a year, according to Census Bureau statistics.

"The gap actually widens as women get more education," Copella said of the Pennsylvania analysis.

While women earned less than men in nearly every profession, the gap was most pronounced in legal occupations. Women reported median salaries of $47,231, which was less than half of their male colleagues, according to the report.

Leslie Stiles, director of the Pennsylvania Commission for Women, said the findings call for all employers to take a hard look at their payrolls, and that men and women should hold companies accountable for any pay disparities.

"It's disheartening that, after all these years, a wage gap still exists," Stiles said. "It is getting better, but it's still there."

The study found that women are earning the same or more than their male colleagues in traditionally male-dominated jobs involving installation, maintenance and repair work. Women in social-service jobs also saw less of a wage gap, with salaries about 91 percent of men's earnings in the field.

If women want to see the wage gap close in all job categories, Stiles said, they have to put more effort into the cause. She suggests that women write to legislators about their concerns, form advocacy groups and educate themselves about median salaries for professions.

"I think the perception, especially among younger women, is that it's a post-feminist era and that women are being paid just as much as men and hold the same jobs that men do," Stiles said. "It just isn't so."

Critics of a gender gap in wages have long argued that such studies don't factor in that women might have selected lower-paying jobs for more flexibility at home or have stayed away from dangerous jobs that pay more.

Harrisburg attorney Keith Kendall, who specializes in employee rights, said he has heard of few court cases involving pay disparity in recent years, possibly because it's not easy for employees to learn each other's salaries.

"It's really, really difficult to find out if you're getting the same salary as someone else," he said, noting that he has to obtain companies' salary information via court order for his cases. "It's not readily available information."

That doesn't mean people shouldn't try getting the information from an employer, Kendall said.

"It's really a matter of asking at an interview or at pay-raise time," Kendall said. "It's a matter of asking and not just accepting a figure that's out there. That's about the only way you can find out."

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