Women's Wages Rose Faster Than Men's During Recession

Wall Street Journal:

The wages of the typical woman who had a job during the worst recession in decades rose faster than those of the typical man, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show.

Over the past two years, the wages of the median woman -- at the statistical middle -- rose 3.2% when adjusted for inflation. Wages of the median man rose 2%. Minority men were particularly hard hit, while minority women and highly educated women of all races did better.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[drymartini1]

Good for women !!

Wow there are so many sexists in this forum. You know guys, if you dated/married some girl who was careerist instead of sitting at home all day to take care of kids and watch daytime soap operas, you could be getting some of the fruits of that labor :).

For single guys out there, word of advice. There are 2 types of girls you dont EVER date.

1) single moms's.
2) unemployed chicks.

rest is all fair game.

[Gin1234]

Amazing the apparent insecurity of men in this thread, and it only takes a suggestion that women are improving in the amount they are paid for doing a job. Pathetic.

[unwashedmasses]

It's about time!

[yappnmutt]

polygamy is the answer. now that a working couple has difficulty paying for necessities the family unit must be expanded to let men and women marry as many people as they would like.

[Pieface]

It works in the Middle East, if the man has wealth..

[prisoner24601]

this will never make sense because the numbers are never reported corectly, they are always reported to satisfy a political agenda. The day I see an article that correcly states that one of the reason that man make more money is because they work more and have more experience I will start listening to the article. Whenever they talk about woman making 70% of what a man makes, this is NEVER for the same job! and NEVER for the same number of hours. I won't deny that there is a gap but when factor shuch as hours worked! the job occupied, tec. the gap is actully around 10%. Somone that says there is no gap is using a better approximation of the wage gap than someone that says there is a 30% difference for the same jobs and hours worked. Anyone that wants to take to time to verity this can, but almost no one ever does or want to. In fact the studies that show these number often will states the first number (i.e. the 30% for impact, and then you need to look at the actual study to find out what they meant i.e. the hours worked were less for women, the women had less job experiences etc.) . Unless an article makes an effort to show the number correcly, I pretty much disregard the information.

[Gin1234]

And what is your source besides speculation? What is your agenda, if all the numbers reported are political? Curious minds.....­..........­.........

[BeeOplentee]

Better yet, get rid of two women making $9.00 an hour and replace them with ONE woman at $12.00 an hour, to do the work of the two replaced!

Now THAT'S progress, folks!

[ImissBush]

must B all thos $$ in the g-strings

[Pieface]

Cheap shot, but cogent for some here!

[ImissBush]

naaa theyre the kind hu stiff their waitress

but the truth
will
out

[bynddrvn5]

This just doesn't make sense.

In every company I have worked in, I saw the entire payroll (from the Janitor to the CEO). From the lowest paid worker to the highest paid worker, women earned more than men. At the low and mid end of the scale women earned around 10% to 20% more than men. The only place where the divide seems to come from is the high end of the scale, and it was the women who did not want to take these positions.

In fact, there was one position for a managing director at my company and the top executives wanted to fill the position with a woman. The position stayed open for more than three years as the company tried to hire someone from outside the company and building up the skills of a few women who almost had all the skills needed for the position. Many highly qualified men left the group and at least 6 or so stated that the blatant bias for putting a woman in the top position was the reason they were leaving the firm.

So I would love to see these statistics with the top executives excluded and the reason women seem to be reluctant to take the top executive positions might be that they are just better at realizing how the company will own their time 24/7. Men seem to be blinded by power and/or greed to notice this fact.

[zanzig]

Because they had further/higher to rise, given the relative starting points.

[donnajr]

like the way the title of the article is used in past tense ,to hint that the great recession is over . now get out to those shopping malls & buy more crap you don't need, on CREDIT.

[Fred Hood]

a man making 12. an hour
a woman making 8 an hour

fire the man
replace with woman pay her 8.50 an hour

THIS IS NOT PROGRESS MY FRIEND, MEN AND WOMEN.....­.......

[BruntLIVE]

Fred: This is EXACTLY what is happen, what's left is a man without money to support his family and a woman who thinks she "made it" but will never know what salary she should be making....­.she's just happy to be in the mix. This will happen more as women and new immigrants agree to minimum salaries in exchange for powerless positions.

[T Pol]

Trust me. No woman thinks she "made it" with her "increased" wages. This is statistically a bunch of crap, as the commenter you replied to pointed out.

These stats forget to mention, too, that the industries hardest hit by the recession were almost all male-dominated fields - construction, auto, etc., while the stable areas are fields like health care and education where women are more employed (often at the lower-paying end, such as the CNA's who change the bedpans in nursing homes).

This doesn't take a rocket scientist or an unemployed financial analyst to figure out, duh.

All stupid headlines and stories without cogent analysis do is create a more hostile climate for women, as though somehow they are costing men their breadwinnings.

Hogwash. Banking cartels and a government content for Wall Street to rape America lies at the root of all evil, IMHO. America creates less, but trades in phantom money and phantom financial products.

[Gin1234]

How sexist. Your attitude is from the 50s. Women's incomes are as necessary for the lives and families as mens are. Your comment is uninformed and ignorant.

[jws2346]

Oh noes, don't tell the Republicans or we'll have a new bill fighting a non existent bias toward hiring woman.

[Gin1234]

Seems there are republicans here planning a bill already.

[MasterHurrikane]

isn't that because of the Liddy Ledbetter act?

[Golden Ticket]

This is Bush's fault. I demand charges be filed!!

[Pieface]

No, it really started with Clinton..

[Bettysdad]

It's to the bosses' benefit to give a lower paid worker a raise, and get rid of the higher paid worker.

He's saving money, even after the raise.

[Pieface]

Do you have a problem with capitalism? BTW: who made it so you could pay for your computer and eat you Cheerios this morning?

[Kalarchis]

Huh? What does ANY part of your reply have to do with the original post?