New data: Wage, executive gaps still exist for women

Sep 19

The Journal Record, September 19th, 2018

OKLAHOMA CITY – Tamara Harvell of Tulsa was working a full-time writing center position and a part-time lab adjunct position at a Tulsa college when she was asked to be part of a proposed reading lab at the institution.

With a passion for helping students read and write well, she jumped at the chance but was told the new position would be an extension of her writing center position.

“I was told I would be paid the same amount as my part-time hourly salary,” she said. “I was doing additional paperwork and extra work with students. I found out through the grapevine that a gentleman who also worked at the reading lab part-time was getting an adjunct salary while I was only getting hourly pay.”

Harvell said she contacted a supervisor who encouraged her not to ruffle any feathers about it, but she demanded more. She contacted a director who agreed the wage disparity was a problem.

“She took it to a committee and they ended up getting rid of that gentleman’s position, saying that if they couldn’t afford to pay us equally, then they shouldn’t have that position,” Harvell said.

Over the summer, Harvell said she got additional proof that she wasn’t being paid equally when she received a letter from human resources.

“They evaluated the wages and considered me to be underpaid,” she said. “I got an additional $2.40 an hour, so I was being underpaid for all these years.”

Harvell’s story isn’t rare. Women in Oklahoma have median weekly earnings of 79.7 percent of the weekly earnings of their Oklahoma male counterparts, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics findings released Friday examining women’s earnings in the state in 2017. The Sooner State ranked 41st out of 50 in WalletHub’s recent report “2018’s Best and Worst States for Women’s Equality.” The disparity between female and male executive and political positions also remains.

By the numbers

The WalletHub study found that Oklahoma women continued to experience inequality in the workplace, in entrepreneurship and in political representation. Women ranked 36th in the earnings gap, 20th in the executive positions gap, 20th in the entrepreneurship rate gap and 37th in the political representation gap, the study found.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ analysis showed Oklahoma women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median usual weekly earnings of $685, or 79.7 percent of the $859 median usual weekly earnings of their male counterparts in 2017.

The women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio in Oklahoma has ranged from a low of 68 percent in 1999 to a high of 87.2 percent in 2009. Since the series high in 2009, Oklahoma’s female-to-male earnings ratio has ranged from 77.0 percent to 83.0 percent. Oklahoma statistics are lower than the national trend. Nationally, women earned $770 per week or 81.8 percent of the $941 median for men.

Experts said the gender gap is expanding. The U.S. failed to land in the top 40 of the World Economic Forum’s gender equality rankings for 144 countries, dropping from 45th place to 49th place.

Lower leadership

Women in leadership see an even bigger disparity, according to WalletHub. Women are disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions nationally, and the American Association of University Women found that females make up only 25 percent of legislators and less than 29 percent of business executives. Cheryl Carleton, economics professor and director of the Villanova Women’s Professional Network at Villanova University, said in order to close the gender pay gap, the nation needs more women in leadership positions.

“Quotas, public disclosure of the gender composition and pay of firms and strong incentive to increase the number of women would help achieve this,” she said. “In addition, more equitable sharing of the costs of raising the next generation and caring for those in need is necessary. Universal family and medical leave, and subsidized child care would help.”

It’s critical to address the low wages in female-dominated jobs, too, she said.

State Sen. Stephanie Bice agreed. She’s one of six females serving in the Oklahoma Senate’s 48 seats. She said the number of women seeking legislative office has been traditionally low. Of the Oklahoma House of Representatives’ 101 seats, only 13 are female.

“What I’ve learned in the past four years is that women simply don’t think of themselves in the political arena,” she said. “They have to be asked to run.”

Another challenge potential legislators face with a body that meets four months out of the year is that it’s difficult to juggle managing a family and serving if they live hours from the Capitol, she said.

“I’m not sure there is anything we can do except to focus on encouraging women to run and exposing them to various offices on all levels of government,” Bice said.

Read more about the makeup of the 2018 Oklahoma Legislature

While few dispute that a disparity exists in executive leadership representation and salaries between men and women, the disagreement exists in the way that disparity is measured. The National Women’s Law Center found women are still underrepresented in government. Carleton said the increase in women’s representation has advanced at a glacial pace.

“The benefits of having a more diverse leadership team are well-established,” she said. “The number of motivated and qualified women is substantial.”

Incentives matter, she said. So businesses must tie decision-makers’ pay, bonuses, promotions and other rewards to measurable increases to the number of women in the pipeline. They must actively sponsor and campaign for women to be hired and promoted into those jobs.

Read more about women’s underrepresentation on corporate boards

Women are making strides in the political arena, however.

The Rutgers Center for American Women in Politics released record numbers concerning the recent women’s state-level primary successes, with primary results for Louisiana to be determined on Nov. 6.

Records set include 16 women nominated for gubernatorial seats this year, as well as a new record of 12 Democratic women nominees. In addition, 128 women won nominations for statewide elected executive offices and 3,379 women won nominations for state legislatures around the country.

In 34 of 46 states holding state legislative elections this year, a record number of women have been nominated. Those milestones vary by party – 35 states have hit a new high for Democratic women nominees for the state legislature and 10 states have hit a new high for Republican women nominees for the state legislature.

However, women are still underrepresented proportionally in statewide executive and gubernatorial nominees, with significant party disparities, Rutgers found. Women are slightly more than one-fifth of gubernatorial nominees, including one-third of Democratic and 11 percent of Republican nominees for governor.

Matthew Austin