Women earn 74% of what men do, report says

Posted March 8, 2010 at 12:51 a.m.

Associated Press | Women with children earn almost a third less
than men and still face too many career obstacles, a global trade union
said in a report released Monday.

The persistent imbalance in household chores can hurt women’s careers,
the study of the International Trade Union Confederation concluded.
Women with kids earn on average 68 percent of what men make, and
overall, women make 74 percent of what men bring in, according to the
report.


The report is “a call to action at all levels,” Diana Holland, chair of the ITUC’s Women’s Committee, said in a statement. The publication of the report coincided with the United Nations Day for Women’s Rights.

The study said that women with kids more often work part-time than men or women without children, indicating it is hard to combine careers with the demands of a family.

Employers often break laws by paying women less than men and by not giving them enough maternity leave, the report said. Women with kids can also be denied promotions or be illegally asked to take pregnancy tests before being hired, the study found.

Women who work in rural areas or in agriculture are most at risk for unfairness at work. A similar study by the European Union released Friday showed that current European laws are not enough to stem discrimination against women in the workplace.

The study was based on reports from over 40 nations across the world.

The ITUC represents 176 million workers from 155 countries.

 

9 comments:

  1. bfchicago March 8, 2010 at 8:27 a.m.

    Might want to change the web site’s front-page headline “Report: Men still paid 74% more than women”. It’s not equality yet, but it hasn’t gone backward that far!

  2. Fred March 8, 2010 at 8:32 a.m.

    The link to this story on the Trib home page to this states that “men make 74% more than women.” The story says “women earn 74% of what men do.” Where did you people go to school, anyway?

  3. David March 8, 2010 at 10:20 a.m.

    Women also tend to get pregnant, and disproportionately take time off to rear children, leading in turn to fewer years of participation in the labor force, on average. This accounts for most of the disparity.

  4. Donna March 8, 2010 at 10:34 a.m.

    To David: put your comment in God’s complaint box as He decided to put the ability to go through labor and rear children of men while working on women. In the meantime, we also do a disproportionate amount of work at home relative to men. On top of doing at least the same amount of work at the office and still making less than equal pay. Go back to your cave.

  5. brad March 8, 2010 at 10:37 a.m.

    This is such an abused statistic. The raw wage gap number is used, as opposed to the real wage gap, once everything else is factored in. Take into consideration:
    1. A greater percentage of women chose to work part-time.
    2. Women may opt to leave the work force for childbirth, child care, or elder care.
    3. Women are often willing to accept a lower paying job in return for family-friendly policies that allow them to have fewer hours, flexible schedules, and a shorter commute.
    In addition, women work fewer hours than men. According to an article posted on the Department of Labor website, “Among full-time workers, 24% of the men, compared to 10% of the women, usually worked more than 40 hours per week
    The Dept of Labor did a big study on this, in the last few months of 2008, but Obama removed it immediatly. Read about it here:
    http://www.consad.com/content/reports/Gender%20Wage%20Gap%20Final%20Report.pdf

  6. kelly March 8, 2010 at 10:42 a.m.

    David: Women get paid 74% of men whether they have kids or not. Your comment is your way of kidding yourself. Most women work up until the day they have their kids and utilize their sick/vacation time (their earnings) while on leave. So your whole “this accounts for most of the disparity” is full of it.

  7. Margaret March 8, 2010 at 10:51 a.m.

    Including Christmas day, I’ve had twelve days of vacation since 1999. I work three jobs, have no kids, pay my own mortgage, and have two master’s degrees. I still make less than men who have less education.
    I do not have time to sue.

  8. David March 8, 2010 at 11:38 a.m.

    Women’s brains are approximately 74% smaller on average so the numbers compute.

  9. Donna March 8, 2010 at 1:51 pm

    Not surprising that you need to fling an insult about women’s brain size to make yourself feel better. If you would like to address the brain size differences, it is summarized well in that women’s brains are able to operate more efficiently as we draw from both sides of the brain. See the excerpt below from Dr. John Gray….
    “One difference between men and women’s brains is size. Men’s brains on average are 10 percent bigger than women’s and have 4 percent more cells. But before all you men claim superiority for having a bigger brain, you’ll need to know that women’s brains contain more nerve cells and cellular connections, which allows their smaller, more compact brains to be more efficient and effective.”