October 30, 2012

A study released last week by the American Association of University Women found women one year out of college are only paid 82 cents compared to each dollar a man makes and that women are paid less than men even when majoring in the same field or doing similar work.

A previous AAUW report called “Graduating to a Pay Gap” found 20 percent of women who work full-time one year after graduating put at least 15 percent of their wages toward paying back college loans.

Among everyone in the workforce full-time, women earn about 77 cents to the dollar compared to their male counterparts, the more recent report said. And though the gap is narrower for college-educated workers, the longevity and persistence of the pay gap suggests earning a degree alone isn’t necessarily the solution to the problem.

The difference in pay between men and women has been a widely known issue since the second wave of feminism that started in the early 1960s, but much of the reasoning behind the pay gap has been left unexplained, according to the report.

“Graduating to a Pay Gap” found that in 2001, women one year out of college were only paid 80 percent of what men were, and 25 percent of that gap was unexplained. Gender differences in types of employment and education play a part, but overall, one-third of the disparities in pay today can only be explained by gender discrimination.

Some MU students said they are also curious about the pay gap and what it means for them once they join the workforce after graduation.

Freshman Amber Khan said she was surprised by the statistics and wanted to know more.

“I don’t see how an employer could justifiably pay a woman less than a man,” Khan said. “And since a lot of people don’t really pay attention to it, that’s probably why it’s still an ongoing issue. Especially in our generation, a lot of people are uninvolved and uninformed.”

Freshman Spencer Glazer said many people are not aware of women’s issues.

“It’s a relevant issue to everybody just because it deals with a huge part of our society,” Glazer said. “I think the best way to get people more focused on the problem would be to just put a lot more facts and figures in people’s minds who were unaware of it before. There needs to be a way more straightforward push for awareness.”

Last week’s report also said legislation such as the Paycheck Fairness Act could be a helpful update to the Equal Pay Act, which prohibits sex-based pay discrimination between males and females in the same place of work.

The ability to negotiate is a crucial part of being a woman in the workplace, MU Career Center senior coordinator Amanda Nell said.

“We do have resources to help students with job negotiation, and we understand the long-term impact that a difference in pay can have on women,” Nell said. “It’s very important for students to learn how to negotiate, but it’s especially important for females.”

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