Study Finds Wide Disparities in Pay of Female Managers

A new analysis of minority women in business management has found that Asian Americans earn far more than other women, including whites, while female managers overall still make as little as 59 cents for every dollar received by their white male counterparts.

The report also found that Latina managers are at the bottom of the pay scale, far behind other female managers in the private sector.

Some experts said the figures suggest that discrimination and other social barriers continue to push women, particularly minority women, into lower-paying jobs and industries.

Other analysts noted, however, that the role of discrimination was impossible to gauge because of limitations in the report, including its failure to account for the impact of age, education, work experience, career preferences or the types of management jobs held by women.

Catalyst, the nonprofit women’s advocacy and research group that released the report Wednesday, acknowledged that few sweeping conclusions could be drawn. Still, Catalyst’s research director, Katherine Giscombe, said her group’s report “dispels the myth that women of color are doubly advantaged, that being of the female gender and a minority gives one financial advantages. It clearly doesn’t.”

The analysis was based on U.S. census data gathered in 1994 and 1995. It found that for every $1 made by white male managers in the private sector, minority female managers earned 57 cents, or 2 cents less than white women.

That relatively narrow gap between minority and white women, however, masks wide differences among ethnic groups. The best-paid female managers, Asian Americans, earned 67 cents for every $1 received by white male managers, while Latina managers made 48 cents.

In terms of weekly pay, female managers’ median earnings were $593 among Asian Americans, $528 for whites, $514 for African Americans and $423 for Latinas.

Catalyst speculated that the varying pay levels among the women of differing ethnic groups stemmed from disparities in educational background, along with the parts of the country where they are concentrated. Asian Americans, for instance, were the most likely among the female managers to hold college degrees, and they tend to live in high-wage areas of the country.

A factor dragging down wages for women of all ethnic backgrounds is their heavy concentration in low-paying industries, especially retailing and professional services.

Still, some economists said Catalyst’s figures exaggerate the pay gap between male and female managers. For instance, federal figures for full-time managers for 1995 show women earning 66 cents, versus $1 for men. Also, federal figures portray the gap as narrowing; as recently as 1980, the figure for female managers was 55 cents.

On the other hand, the Catalyst report follows the recent release of separate federal statistics that, in a surprise to many economists, suggested that the wage gap between all male and female workers--including managers and non-managers--no longer is shrinking.

Those federal numbers showed that women--including managers and hourly workers--made about 74 or 75 cents for every $1 earned by men last year, the same as in 1995.

Most economists had thought women’s earnings, which were only 60 cents for every $1 made by men as recently as 1980, were continuing to catch up.