Equal Pay Day 2016: Bringing women closer to wage equality

 

April 13, 2016



LARAMIE – Tuesday was National Equal Pay Day, a national day of action against unfair pay. 

According to the Wyoming Women’s Foundation, April 12th represents the point into the new year that women must work in order to earn the wages paid to men in the previous year. On a national level,

women are paid only 79 cents for every dollar a man is paid, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Wyoming Women’s Foundation (WYWF) released information Tuesday regarding the gender wage gap in Wyoming.  Wyoming’s gender wage gap ranks 49th (out of 51) in the nation, making it far worse than the national average.  In Wyoming, women earn only 69 cents for every dollar a man earns.

Released Tuesday was an update to a white paper published by the Wyoming Women’s Foundation and authored by Dr. Catherine Connolly, a professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wyoming and legislator in the Wyoming House of Representatives.  The Wage Gap between Wyoming’s Men and Women: 2015 details the many factors associated with wages and the wage gap, and explores strategies that could decrease the gender wage gap.

According to Dr. Cathy Connolly’s “The Wage Gap Between Wyoming’s Men and Women: 2015,” “The cumulative effect of the wage gap over a lifetime of depressed economic status for Wyoming’s women includes not only the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in income but also retirement security putting our state’s women, families and communities at risk.”

Supporting materials released today included an infographic showcasing the gender wage gap per county in the state of Wyoming, and demonstrates how education helps close the gap.  Across all degrees, the wage gap narrows with increased levels of education for women.  For instance, women with a high school degree or less earn 60 cents for every $1 a man earns, while women with advanced degrees earn 80 cents for every $1 a man earns.

These data pieces are available for download on the Wyoming Women’s Foundation website: wywf.org.

Through a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Wyoming Women’s Foundation and Dr. Connolly worked with Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center (WYSAC) at the University of Wyoming to update the wage gap data.  WYSAC prepared data for The Wage Gap Between Wyoming’s Men and Women: 2015 and produced the infographic, Closing The Gap: Bringing Women Closer to Wage Equality through Education.

The Wyoming Women’s Foundation is a priority fund of the Wyoming Community Foundation (WYCF).

A nonprofit organization, WYCF connects people who care with causes that matter to build a better Wyoming. In 2015 WYCF granted over $6 million to Wyoming nonprofits.

 
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