The Good News: It’s No Longer 59 Cents : Bad news: Income gap between women and men continues to loom large

Women in California make 69 cents for every dollar a man makes. The disparity fails to evoke surprise. But just because an inequity is well known doesn’t mean that Americans should accept it with a shrug. Deeply embedded and uncorrected sexual discrimination, especially in compensation, threatens to erode the American ideal of fairness.

A Times computer analysis of U.S. Census Bureau income figures shows that in most occupations women earn significantly less than their male counterparts. Some economists argue that the income disparities can be explained by the greater work experience of some men, particularly among older workers, and women’s decisions to take jobs in lower-paying fields and specialties. A physician who is a general practitioner, for example, would typically make less than a surgeon.

Such reasoning, however, fails to explain the income gap between men and women with comparable experience doing the same job. Why, for example, should men on the average make more than women in the female-dominated fields of teaching, nursing and clerical and social work? One obvious answer comes to mind: sex discrimination.

Too often people try to justify sex discrimination by offering “good” reasons. Helen Bernstein, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, related a story of how a former boss handed out bonuses only to male teachers because the men “had families to support.” Yet many of the women teachers were divorced mothers who also had children to support.

The income gap statewide is nearly the same as the 70-cent gap seen nationwide. And the disparities are essentially the same in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Women in L.A. County earn 71 cents for every dollar a man earns; in Orange County it is 68 cents. And the gap is seen in virtually every line of work--lawyers, waiters, secretaries.

There is some good news in all of this: The income gap is narrowing. The button popular with some women activists--the one that merely said “59 cents,” signifying what women made for each dollar a man earned-- is now outdated. “The gap has clearly declined in wages and salaries,” said economist Joyce P. Jacobsen. “The question is, is it going to continue or not, and how long is it going to take to get it to match dollar for dollar?”

It will take as long as government, corporations, small business and average Americans allow it to take. Which is to say, it shouldn’t take long.

But will it?