Women Still Underrepresented Among Highest Earners

Abstract

[Excerpt] Women’s median usual weekly earnings were 81.0 percent of men’s in 2005, among full-time wage and salary workers. While this proportion has risen over the last several decades, women still are underrepresented among the highest earners and overrepresented among the lowest. These finding are based on data from the Current Population Survey. In 2005, 103.6 million Americans were full-time wage and salary workers; of these, 56.4 percent were men, and 43.6 percent were women. Yet, women made up only 31.0 percent of workers in the highest earnings category (the top fourth or fourth quartile of workers by earnings). Moreover, women made up a slight majority of the lowest earnings category (the bottom fourth or first quartile), 53.2 percent, compared with 46.8 percent for men.