Activity #10

After college, I plan on being a business manager. According to the United States Department of Labor, in 2007, the largest percentage of employed women (39%) worked in management, professional, and related occupations. Management analysts were ranked eighth in the top ten occupations with the highest median weekly earnings among women with $1,083. Those weekly earnings total roughly $56,316 for a yearly salary. However, I researched statistics for management occupations and the median weekly rate was $1,557.20, which makes the annual wage for the 5,892,900 employees $80,974.40. The mean annual wage estimates for management occupations was $91,930. There is obviously a discrepancy between what the women and men are earning in this field. (Employment and Earnings, 2007 Annual Averages and the Monthly Labor Review, 2008)
The statistics also stated that women accounted for 51% of all workers in high-paying management, professional, and related occupations. They outnumbered men as financial managers, accountants and auditors, budget analysts, property, real estate, and social and community association managers, preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers, physical therapists, and registered nurses. Although these statistics may look good to anyone, I realized that they are not all business-related fields. (Employment and Earnings, 2007 Annual Averages and the Monthly Labor Review, 2008)
Robert E. Robertson wrote an analysis focused on the Department of Labor’s Current Population Survey or CPS. The work centered around ten industries: communications, public administration, business and repair services, entertainment and recreation services, other professional services, educational services, retail trade, finance, insurance, real estate, hospitals and medical services, and professional medical services. These ten industries accounted for about 70% of all salary positions filled by women in 2000. Robertson and the others that worked on the analysis defined managers with titles that included the words administrator, director, manager, or supervisor. This makes their information more relevant to me because they specifically paid attention to managers. They found that female managers in the ten industries generally had less education, were younger, less likely to be married, and more likely to work part-time. In four of the industries, women were significantly less represented in management positions than they were in all positions. Women were only equally represented in five out of ten of the industries. They also found that full-time female managers earned less than full-time male managers in all ten industries after controlling education, age, marital status, and race. (Robertson, 2002)
The Analysis also provided full-time manager salary differentials for the ten industries in 2000. For every one dollar earned by males in communication management, females earned .73. In Public administration management, females earned .83 for every dollar earned my males. In business and repair management, females earned .76 for every dollar earned by males. In entertainment and recreation services management, women earned .62 for every dollar earned by men. Women earned .83 for every male dollar in other professional services management. In Educational services management, women earned .91 for every dollar earned by men. In retail trade management, women earned .65 for every dollar earned by males. Women earned just .68 for every dollar earned by men in finance, insurance, and real estate management. In hospital and medical management, women earned .85 for every dollar earned by men. Finally, in professional medical services management, women earned .88 for every dollar earned by men. (Robertson, 2002)
A recent survey conducted by the National Association of Female Executives (NAFE) showed that women marketing and sales managers earned almost $30,000 less annually than their male counterparts. According to NAFE, there have been several class-action gender-discrimination lawsuits filed in the past few years which may encourage companies to address the gender-pay gap. (24 Cents Short: Women Still Lag Behind Men in Earning Power, 2008)

References

24 Cents Short: Women Still Lag Behind Men in Earning Power. (2008). Retrieved April 22, 2008, from National Association For Female Excecutives: http://www.nafe.com/web?service=direct/1/ViewArticlePage/dlinkFullTopArticle3&sp=365&sp=275

Employment and Earnings, 2007 Annual Averages and the Monthly Labor Review. (2008, April 22). Retrieved April 22, 2008, from U.S. Department of Labor : http://www.dol.gov/

Robertson, R. E. (2002). Women in Management Analysis of Current Population Survey Data. United States General Accounting Office.