Staffing patterns prominent in female-male earnings gap, (EXCERPT), Monthly Labor Review Online, June 1984

Staffing patterns prominent
in female-male earnings gap

Mark S. Sieling

In congressional testimony, Commissioner of Labor Statistics Janet L. Norwood summed up findings on pay differences between women and men by saying: "Women in general earn less than men today and much of the difference is because the jobs that women hold are generally paid at lower rates than the jobs held by men."¹ One need only look at the office setting to understand the strength of this statement: women hold nearly 8 of 10 traditionally lower paid clerical jobs, but fewer than 3 of 10 of the higher paying managerial and administrative positions. Such staffing patterns bring to mind the barriers to women's entry and promotion in higher paying occupations, and the pay differences between the traditionally female-dominated and male-dominated jobs. This article discusses another aspect of gender pay differences: How are women and men paid in jobs they hold in common-to what extent does equal pay prevail for equal work?

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 1981 national survey of professional, administrative, technical, and clerical pay (PATC survey), which covers white-collar employees in medium and large establishments, show that:

Average pay of men in narrowly defined white-collar occupational skill levels generally exceeded earnings of their female counterparts, but the difference was smaller than other broader-based measurements indicate.
Women's earnings were closer to men's when viewed within individual establishments.
Sizable female-male pay differentials existed within some establishments, but they were not consistently in men's favor.

This excerpt is from an article published in the June 1984 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file for more information.

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Footnotes

1 Statement before the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, Subcommittee on Human Resources, Civil Service, and Compensation and employee Benefits, U.S. House of Representatives, Sept. 16, 1982. Subsequently, this formed the basis for The Female-Male Earnings Gap: A Review of Employment and Earnings Issues, Report 673 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1982).

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