Sunday: Oklahoma pay gap wide for men, women

Median pay in the state for a woman working full time is $31,274 per year compared to $41,420 for a man, meaning women are paid about 76 cents for every dollar paid to men, according to reports from the National Partnership for Women & Families and the National Women’s Law Center.

“It’s rare for people to know where they stand in terms of wages compared with someone else. What makes it even tougher is that some employers have rules that penalize workers for talking about their own wages,” said Fatima Goss Graves, vice president of education and employment at the National Women’s Law Center.

Wage gaps exist in virtually every occupation. Sometimes the gap in lower-paying jobs is smaller because employees earn minimum wage or slightly more, Graves said.