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perception of "women's work." Therefore, compensation
<br />disparities can arise where employers track women
<br />into low-paying jobs or limit their opportunities for
<br />promotions or transfers to better jobs.
<br />Occupational gender segregation has decreased over
<br />the last 40 years, largely due to women moving into
<br />formerly male -dominated jobs, especially during the
<br />1970s and 1980s, and to faster growth of more evenly
<br />mixed -gender occupations in the 1990s. But integration
<br />has stalled since the early 2000s. Occupational
<br />segregation also continues to affect some women
<br />more than others: Of all racial and ethnic groups,
<br />Hispanic women and men are the least likely to work in
<br />the same jobs (Hegewisch & Hartmann, 2014).
<br />Working in traditionally male fields will likely improve
<br />wages for individual women, but it is unlikely to
<br />eliminate the pay gap. Women in such male -dominated
<br />jobs as computer programming still face a pay gap
<br />compared with men in the field, even though women
<br />in such jobs may be paid higher salaries than women
<br />in traditionally female fields. And moving into a higher -
<br />paying field can have diminishing returns for women
<br />over time. A study of 50 years of U.S. workforce data
<br />concluded that when an influx of women enters a
<br />previously male -dominated profession, average wages
<br />for the occupation as a whole actually decrease, even
<br />for men in the field (Levanon et al., 2009).
<br />Women are not drawn to low-paying fields because
<br />they desire low pay; the work that women do is valued
<br />less than work done by men because that work is
<br />done by women. Men are paid more watching cars (as
<br />parking lot attendants) than women are paid watching
<br />children (as child care workers), but few would argue
<br />that the former is more intrinsically valuable work (U.S.
<br />Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018e).
<br />The research and data indicate, therefore, that women
<br />experience pay gaps in nearly every line of work,
<br />regardless of occupational qualifications or setting.
<br />Among the 114 occupations held by at least 50,000
<br />men and 50,000 women in 2017, 107 had a statistically
<br />significant pay gap favoring men and six had non-
<br />significant gaps. Only one occupation had a "reverse"
<br />gap favoring women. Considering the gap in pay, along
<br />with the number of women employed in an occupation,
<br />allows for a rough estimate of how much women in
<br />that occupation could gain from equal pay: 519.6 billion
<br />for financial managers, 519.5 billion for doctors and
<br />surgeons, 510.7 billion for lawyers, and 510.0 billion for
<br />chief executives. Below are the gender pay gaps for the
<br />10 largest occupations for women (figure 10).
<br />FIGURE 10: Women Employed, Earnings, Pay Ratio, and Total Occupation Gap, Largest Occupations for
<br />Women, 2017
<br />Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2018a)
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<br />THE SIMPLE TRUTH ABOUT THE GENDER PAY GAP I Fall 2018 Edition
<br />Women
<br />Employed
<br />Men's Median
<br />Earnings
<br />Women's Median
<br />Earnings
<br />Gender
<br />Pay Ratio
<br />Occupation
<br />Gap
<br />Registered nurses
<br />2,092,489
<br />571,590
<br />565,612
<br />92%
<br />$12,509,000,000
<br />Secretaries and administrative assistants
<br />2,060,289
<br />542,566
<br />$38,470
<br />90%
<br />$8,439,000,000
<br />Elementary and middle school teachers
<br />1,933,074
<br />$55,197
<br />$50,766
<br />92%
<br />$8,565,000,000
<br />Customer service representatives
<br />1,196,513
<br />$37,623
<br />532,893
<br />87%
<br />55,660,000,000
<br />First-line supervisors of retail sales workers
<br />1,177,835
<br />$47,774
<br />535,217
<br />74%
<br />514,790,000,000
<br />Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides
<br />1,071,789
<br />$30,125
<br />526,816
<br />89%
<br />$3,547,000,000
<br />Accountants and auditors
<br />1,014,827
<br />$77,320
<br />$60,280
<br />78%
<br />517,293,000,000
<br />Office clerks, general
<br />734,622
<br />$39,160
<br />$35,226
<br />90%
<br />$2,890,000,000
<br />First-line supervisors of office and
<br />administrative support workers
<br />729,985
<br />$57,466
<br />$46,555
<br />81%
<br />$7,965,000,000
<br />Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks
<br />723,342
<br />545,254
<br />$39,939
<br />88%
<br />53,845,000,000
<br />Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2018a)
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<br />THE SIMPLE TRUTH ABOUT THE GENDER PAY GAP I Fall 2018 Edition
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