WORKPLACE: Gender gap in pay narrows in California

And, the gender wage gap, which narrowed considerably over a 30-year period leading up to the turn of the century, has virtually flattened in the past 10 years. Nationally women made 77 percent of what men earned in 2011, the most recent year for which data are available, and that number was virtually unchanged since 2002, the National Women’s Law Center reported.
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“Even if women have come a long way, there’s still discrimination,” said Kate Gallagher Robbins, senior policy analyst. “There’s still a need for stronger laws.”

Robbins pointed to Lilly Ledbetter Fair Play Act, a 2009 federal law that extended the time period a woman could file a pay-discrimination lawsuit. She also suggested discrepancies could be leveled at the ceiling if the floor was higher, meaning, her group is advocating a higher minimum wage.

The gender gap is not always a matter of discrimination. In many cases, women elected to put their careers on hold because of family matters, meaning they often went years without getting regular pay increases their male counterparts received. Many women are still trying to catch up in that regard.

Also, the recession curtailed salary advances for all. “Everyone’s doing a little worse than they did in 2007,” Robbins said.

Another way to rectify this is for women to get a fair shot at new-generation jobs. Robbins said over the past few years there has been growth in manufacturing for new types of transportation equipment, but she said it was uncommon for women to be hired for those positions.