GovernmentExecutive.com

The dramatic shrink in the pay gap between male and female federal employees during the past 20 years is due mostly to changes in the makeup of the workforce, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. More employees have higher education, for example, fewer work in clerical and blue-collar jobs, and more women hold professional and managerial positions.

But there has been a persistent 7-cent wage gap that can't be explained by demographics, suggesting gender discrimination remains a stubborn problem, according to lawmakers at a Joint Economic Committee hearing on Tuesday, where the report was released.

"The pay gap in the federal workforce that GAO found reflects troubling pay disparity issues in the broader labor market," said Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., who chairs the committee. "Equal pay is not just a women's issue, it's a family issue. The impact of the wage gap is particularly painful in our current economic downturn as families struggle to make ends meet in the face of stagnant wages and job losses."

The study looked at snapshots of the federal workforce in 1988, 1998 and 2007, using employment figures from the Office of Personnel Management. In 1988, women workers earned about 72 cents for every dollar men earned. In 1998, women earned 81 cents for every male dollar. By 2007, that figure had risen to 89 cents.

Much of the difference can be explained by shifts in education, experience and job classification. But taking into account those factors -- as well as race and location -- the study shows that about 7 cents of that gap hasn't budged since 1988, according to the study.

Andrew Sherrill, GAO's director of education, workforce and income security issues, said analysts couldn't explain the gap. "This analysis neither confirms nor disputes the existence of discriminatory factors," he said at the hearing.

In August 2008, a GAO report found that oversight agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs needed to do more to monitor anti-discrimination efforts.

Both reports were in response to a request from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to examine pay gaps in the national workforce. The latest study shows the federal gap still appears to be less than the workforce at large.

A GAO study released in 2003 showed that, between 1983 and 2003, women on average earned 44 percent less than men nationwide. At the hearing, witnesses attributed the difference to better anti-discrimination laws in the federal government.

"I would applaud the government for their anti-discrimination efforts," said Randy Albelda, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. But more needs to be done to reduce the gap to zero, she added. In particular, panelists said the government should ensure that contractors follow anti-discrimination laws.

In a related note, President Obama declared Tuesday National Equal Pay Day to advance pay equity across the nation. "I call upon American men and women, and all employers, to acknowledge the injustice of wage discrimination and to commit themselves to equal pay for equal work," he wrote in his proclamation.