Layoffs sharpen focus on gender wage gap

When the morning "bye, honey" hug has the wife heading out to work and the husband staying at home because he's been laid off, the gap in pay between women and men becomes a family issue.

If the wife had been laid off instead, the family income likely would have taken a smaller hit, because women in the U.S. still earn only 78 cents for every dollar that men earn. In Virginia, women average 77 percent of what men earn.

The wage gap remains important when the economy is reeling and workers may be relieved to have almost any job. More than 80 percent of jobs lost thus far in the recession have belonged to men, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"The lower wages of women become more relevant during a recession," said Kevin P. Miller, research associate at the Institute for Women's Policy Research in Washington. "They're left as the support of the family. . . . If women's wages were equal, on average, there would be less of an impact."

To Marj Signer of Arlington, president of the Virginia chapter of the National Organization for Women, "paying women equally is a family-values issue. Equal pay supports the family. It's not a man supporting the family, it's people supporting the family. Until we value women's work, we don't really value the family."

Amanda Chimilio of Henrico County knows the impact. When her partner lost his job about six months ago, they lost about 55 percent of their income.

She had become a certified nursing assistant two years ago, which increased her pay, but it wasn't enough to match that of her partner, who was an assistant manager at a hardware chain and worked in industrial jobs. They have a 2-year-old son.

"It's a good thing that I'm doing better with my income," she said, "but it throws off the balance, that it's just me. It's frustrating. He wants to feel like he's doing something."

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When Congress passed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, women earned only 59 percent of men's wages. The gap has narrowed by 19 cents since then, according to 2007 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but it seems to have stagnated below 80 percent even though overt discrimination has been banned. The most recent yearly gain was about a penny.

The wage gap also varies based on ethnic groups. In Virginia, Asian women and white women earn 76 percent as much as men of the same ethnicity. Hispanic women earn 86 percent as much as Hispanic men though only 53 percent as much as white men.

More than 80 percent of the people who have lost jobs since the recession began in December 2007 have been men, because more men work in such fields as construction and manufacturing, where jobs disappear first.

For many families, loss of the man's income is more dramatic than the statistics suggest because the wife has concentrated on maintaining the family rather than pursuing a career.

Dave Abernethy, for example, was laid off last year as a market research and project manager at a Henrico financial institution. Despite the part-time jobs that he and his wife, Annie, have taken, the family income has plummeted about 80 percent, he said.

While looking for a job in his field, Abernethy, 53, branched out to find part-time jobs as webmaster for his church and tournament organizer for a volleyball league.

Annie Abernethy, 38, didn't finish college, so her income potential is less. Also, she hasn't worked full time since the births of their three children, one of whom has special needs. She now works part time as a nanny for neighbors and as a referee and clerk for a volleyball league.

A similar financial shortfall faces Ben Buholtz, 54. The demise of Qimonda's Henrico plant left the staff process engineer with about 70 percent less income, even though his wife works full time for a department store. She had never pursued a traditional career so she could travel with him on extended training assignments earlier in his career.

In the past, the wife's income made it possible to have nice vacations; now, it's the money they use for groceries and other essentials.

"She said, 'You've been doing it for years and years. I guess it's my turn now,'" Buholtz said in their Fan District condo. He added that they're in better shape than many from Qimonda, because of her income and their savings.

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When women choose to work part time or take a break when children are young, it affects their income, but it doesn't explain the persistent wage gap, according to experts in the field.

"The reality is that almost everything you can think of as a possible explanation is part of it," said Miller of the women's research institute. "Choices are part of it, educational opportunities are part of it, differences in how they negotiate are part of it. But account for all those differences and the wage gap persists in the most complete of these studies."

Hilary M. Lips, chairwoman of the psychology department and director of the Center for Gender Studies at Radford University, calls the issue "pretty complicated."

"It's still the case that women take more responsibility than men for children. That means they take time off. Even if they don't take very much time, taking a small amount of time can harm you for the rest of your career.

"I always get irritated when I hear people saying women make these choices. We as a society have structured things so these are the consequences."

Other things that still hurt women's pay include occupational segregation, expectations and stereotypes, Lips said.

Women tend to be encouraged to go into different occupations than men, and women's occupations tend to pay less.

"It is very difficult to come up with an occupation that is both female-dominated and very high in pay and prestige," Lips said. "Even the professions that women dominate [e.g., nurses, librarians] require a great deal of education and training but tend not to be highly compensated in comparison to professions dominated by men."

Among college students asked to estimate how much they will be paid at their peak, women make significantly lower estimates than men do, Lips said. Other research found that what you anticipate earning seems to have a relationship to what you actually earn, and it probably has an impact on how hard you are willing to negotiate for a raise.

Stereotypes come into play regarding parenthood. Women who have children may be viewed as less committed and less ambitious, she said. They may not be offered opportunities.

"People will think she doesn't want to take this on because she has young children," Lips said. "For men, when they think of a father, he's responsible. That's a good thing. He's probably more committed, more ambitious."

When President Barack Obama came into office, the first piece of legislation he signed was designed to help women recover equal pay for equal work. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act reverses a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required pay-discrimination claims to be filed within 180 days of the first paycheck, when it is unlikely that a victim knows that discrimination has occurred. The new law creates a new 180-day window with each paycheck.

Next in line for advocates is adoption of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would prevent retaliation against employees who reveal their own salaries, allow equal-pay plaintiffs to seek punitive damages as well as back pay, and provide money to train women and men in salary negotiation skills.

The American Association of University Women, which released a study in 2007 called "Behind the Pay Gap," has started a series of $tart $mart Campus Negotiation Workshops to teach college women about career choices and negotiating skills.

"Your career choice and path in life is not all about the money," said Virginia AAUW co-Chairwoman Laura Wimmer of Ashland, "but when you do the same job, you should get the same pay."

Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or .