US public sector gender pay gap revealed at 10%

13 Feb 18

Women in the American public sector earn 10% less than men, an analysis of government documents obtained through freedom of information requests have revealed.

The employee earnings records also show that 73% of government workers making $100,000 or more a year are men, the analysis by the Contently Foundation, a non-profit focusing on investigative journalism, found.

The largest pay gap between men and women was in California, where men make $19,500 per year more than women, a 24% difference.

Women in positions where men tend to dominate have lower salaries than men in the same jobs. The analysts also noted that male-dominated professions such as law enforcement, engineering and technology offer higher salaries than sectors such as education and healthcare, which employ more women.

The foundation looked at figures from documents provided by all 50 states and most federal agencies, except the Department of Defense and a number of others that did not provide worker names or demographics.

Last month, Iceland became the first country in the world to make paying women less than men illegal.

The OECD last year called on advanced economies to do more to close gender gaps, despite an increased focus on getting more women into public and private sector leadership.

Simone Rensch has looked at the benefits of gender budgeting and achieving equality through fiscal policy for Public Finance International

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