The Income & Gender Gap: One Closes While Another Grows?

In September, The Wall Street Journal reported that in 2008, single & childless young women-- between the ages of 22 and 30-- out-earned their male peers by 8 percent.  The findings came from New York-based consumer research firm Reach Advisors, who conducted an analysis of Census data.

According to The WSJ, the trend first emerged several years ago in major metropolitan areas. Now, the pattern is spreading to more suburban areas and satellite cities.  Stemming beyond major cities such as New York and San Francisco, the income disparity is highest in rapidly growing economic hubs with high immigrant populations.  The disparity is highest in Atlanta,where young & childless women out-earn their male counterparts by 121 percent.

The WSJ explains that these findings reflect the closing education gap. Between 2006 and 2008, 32.7 percent of women received a bachelor's degree, compared to 25.8 percent of men. Meanwhile, men have  been hardest hit during the current economic climate-- word on the street is that women were more likely to be employed during the recession.

While the income gap is seemingly closing and reversing between young, childless women & their male counterparts, women as a whole continue to experience stagnant wages-- and this is a reality at virtually all education levels.

According to Census data, female bachelor's degree-holders had median income of $39,571 between 2006 and 2008 while bachelor's degree holding men earned $59,079.  This phenomenon is constant at virtually every education level-- from dropouts to PhD. Women who have children see lower or stagnant wages.

The big question that arises from these findings is whether the income gap is actually closing between women and men. In the social sciences, an important idea is the concept of the "cohort." This is a group of people who share common experiences based on age or educational experience. For instance, a birth cohort can include people who were born within a certain time period and in a particular geographic or social circle. An education-based cohort includes people who begin and end college at the same time.

Perhaps the income gap that we have known and studied is cohort-specific-- that is, younger generations of women will earn as much or out-earn her male counterparts, even after they start families.With a cohort study, researchers need to wait for time to pass, so it will be important to examine the income gap as more data becomes available. Will groups of young, high-earning childless women out-earn her male counterparts in a few years? We'll watch and wait.

When we examine the gender gap as a whole, we are doing what social scientists call a period study, which means that we are filtering through cross sections of multiple cohorts. In a period study, we see the cumulative effects of multiple cohorts simultaneously. This includes cohorts of women where gender-based income gaps are more prevalent (ie. women who entered the workforce 10, 15, or 20 years ago).

Are we seeing the income gap closing and another one-- where women earn  more than men-- emerging? We'll watch and wait with the Census by our side.

Souce.

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