Pay Gap Worsens for Women as They Age : Salary: College-educated women earn what men with a high school diploma do, survey says. Female-dominated careers tend to pay less.

Women with four years of college earn roughly the same salary as men with only a high-school diploma, according to government statistics released Wednesday. At every education level, women make less money than men with the same amount of schooling.

An Associated Press analysis of Census Bureau numbers also found that the pay gap between full-time working men and women grows wider as they get older.

A college-educated woman between ages 18 and 24 earns an average 92 cents for every dollar earned by a man of the same age and education. Her earnings drop steadily and, by the time she is between ages 55 and 64, the average female worker is making 54 cents for every dollar earned by a man.

The gap is just as wide between men and women workers who did not go to college.

It is illegal to pay women less for equal work. But the law says nothing about paying people differently if they do different jobs. And experts say that’s the problem: The pay gap reflects lower salaries paid in fields traditionally dominated by women and the difficulty women have breaking through to higher-paid positions.

Women earn less if they choose careers in fields dominated by their own sex, such as nursing, social work, clerical jobs and teaching in the public schools, experts say.

“The fact of the matter is, many women don’t wish to go into non-traditional, male-dominated occupations,” said Carolin Head, assistant director of the American Assn. of University Women. “It is not acceptable in this country to tell nurses and teachers that if they want to make more, they need to choose a different occupation.”

Heidi Hartman, an economist and director of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, said her organization’s studies show that a year of experience adds about 7 cents an hour to women’s pay, compared to 24 cents an hour for men.

Adult women with four years of high school on average earn $17,809 a year, about two-thirds of what a man with similar education would earn. With four years of college, women’s earnings rise to $27,344.

That’s only about $600 more than what an adult man with a high school education earns. Four years of college increase his pay to $42,500, more than $15,000 above what a college-educated woman earns.

The study confirmed other findings that women get a raw deal on pay day and on the promotion list:

* The Feminist Majority Foundation recently found that less than 3% of the top jobs at Fortune 500 firms were held by women.

* A Labor Department study of promotion in nine big companies prompted Labor Secretary Lynn Martin in August to vow to shatter the “glass ceiling” that bars women and minorities from the executive suites.

* The Bureau of Labor Statistics since 1979 has collected figures showing women’s pay overall has lagged behind men’s. In that year, women earned 62 cents for each dollar earned by men. Since then their earnings have crept up to 70 cents on the dollar.

* Even on the tennis court women lose out financially. Officials of the Wimbledon tournament in May said the women’s champion would receive $367,000, but the men’s champion would get $408,000.

Some groups, such as the National Commission on Pay Equity, are lobbying employers to target women in their recruiting for traditionally male jobs.

“If the opportunities are there, women will train for them,” said the organization’s acting director, Kelly Jenkins.

The study was based on a survey of 58,000 households covering level of education in 1989.