Which Jobs Have the Biggest and Smallest Wage Gaps?

Posted on Feb 13, 2013

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When it comes to paychecks, women are still making significantly less than men do in the same jobs, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report reveals. On average, women are getting paid roughly 81 percent of what their male counterparts are taking home.

According to the data, the gap in pay between men and women is biggest for insurance sales agents (62.5 percent) and retail salespeople (64.3 percent) and smallest for health technicians (103.7 percent) and counselors (102.6 percent).

NPR:

Part of the gap in pay is driven by choices, even within single job categories. Among physicians, for example, women are more likely than men to choose lower-paid specialties (though this does not explain all of the pay gap among doctors).

And among all workers, women are more likely than men to take a significant time off from work to raise children, and they tend to be re-hired at lower wages than their counterparts who remained in the workforce.

...One other detail worth noting: The jobs where the gap is biggest pay more, on average, than the jobs where the gap is lowest. The average weekly pay is $1,087 for jobs where the gap is biggest, and $773 for jobs where the gap is smallest.

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—Posted by Tracy Bloom.

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