The average woman in the federal government earns 20 percent less per paycheck than the average man, Labor Department statistics show. Vice President Al Gore is directing federal managers to close the gap.
At a press conference celebrating Equal Pay Day last week, Gore said managers must do more to improve gender equality both in the federal government and in the private sector.
"This inequity has no simple cause," Gore said. "It is not merely a matter of women with the same positions as men getting lower pay, it is also a matter of women with the same merit as men getting lower positions. It must be addressed."
According to Labor Department statistics, women in all industries earned three-fourths as much as men in 1995, up from two-thirds in 1983. Women in the federal government took home 79 percent as much as men, the Labor Department says. The statistics represent an overall gap between men and women's pay, but do not show whether men and women in the same jobs are paid differently.
Kelly Jenkins-Pultz, a social science advisor with the Labor Department's Women's Bureau, said women in the government generally have good career opportunities. For example, the Washington, D.C. area has the narrowest pay gap in the country. In 1990, the latest year for which regional data is available, the average woman made 87.5 percent of what the average man made. Jenkins-Pultz attributed the small gap to government employment.
"The government has a lot of professional opportunities for women," Jenkins-Pultz said. "In addition, a lot of government workers are members of unions. Women who belong to unions earn 40 percent more on average than women who don't belong to unions."
Gore announced several initiatives to shrink the pay gap in the federal government.
The Office of Personnel Management has prepared a new guide for managers, "Women in the Federal Government: A Guide to Recruiting and Retaining." The guide notes that women make up 43 percent of the federal workforce, compared to 46 percent for the nation's entire workforce. Managers can use recruitment and retention bonuses and flexible work schedules to attract women, the guide says.
The guide also notes a number of family-friendly policies, including leave-sharing programs, telecommuting, paid leave for family care and 12 weeks per year of unpaid family leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act as benefits that help retain female employees. OPM will work with women's organizations to bring more women into the government, the guide says.
"Federal executives and managers have a responsibility to assure their department and agency workplaces reflect the rich diversity of America. All segments of our society, including women, must have equal opportunities to participate," the guide says.
The Labor Department has created a self-audit managers can take to test their organizations' commitment to equal pay. The department also created a checklist female employees can review to see if they are treated fairly. "Some people may not realize that what's holding them back is that they haven't been their own best advocate," Jenkins-Pultz said.
Both tests are available on Labor's Women Bureau Web site.
Gore said the Labor Department will report annually on the pay gap, and that Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would work together to promote equal pay.
Labor Secretary Alexis Herman called the pay gap "un-American."
"Something is fundamentally wrong when money is deducted from a woman's paycheck not for taxes, not for health care, not for pensions, but simply because of who they are. This is a gender tax," Herman said.
The percentage of women in the Senior Executive Service, the federal government's top cadre of career leaders, increased from 11 percent in 1990 to 20 percent in 1996, according to OPM statistics. Women make up 83 percent of the government's clerical employees, 60 percent of its technical employees, and about 40 percent of its professional and administrative workers, OPM says.
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