Tuesday, April 20 was recognized as this year’s National Pay Equity Day. The day signifies the day that a woman working full time year round would have earned the same amount as a man made the previous year.
According to a recent report from Wisconsin Women’s Council and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, even though women made up about 48.2 percent of the labor force in Wisconsin, many women are concentrated in low-wage and low-quality occupations.
"This has been a brutal recession, hitting manufacturing and construction and their workers – mostly men – especially hard," said Laura Dresser, associate director, Center on Wisconsin Strategy. "But that doesn’t mean that women are doing well. This recession has been hard across the board. And the underlying gender gap in wages is persistent and still with us, and given its stubborn stability, it will be for a long time."
According to the report, in 2009 Wisconsin women earned 81 cents on the dollar compared to men. In 2008, it was 82 cents for every dollar. Wisconsin women’s wages were roughly 19 percent lower than men’s in 2009, which equates to an average of $7,000 difference in earning annually, the report said.
"Women’s presence alone in the labor market does not even the wage scales," said Christine Lidbury, executive director, Wisconsin Women’s Council. "There is little to celebrate until we close the long-standing gap in women’s earning power."
Join BizTimes reporter Alysha Schertz on Wednesday, April 28 for the Women in Business Luncheon at this year’s BizTech Conference and Expo. A panel of women business leaders including Lynn Sprangers, consultant for the Milwaukee Brewers, JoAnne Brandes, founder and senior fellow of the Carroll University Center for Leadership Excellence, Mary Isbister, president of GenMet, Cindy Lu, president and founder of the Novo Group and Ellen Bartel, president of Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, will discuss the talent and strategy they provide as business leaders in the community, issues related to the wage difference and other challenges they’ve faced along the way. For more information visit www.biztimes.com/expo2010
