Generally speaking, men out-earn women in the U.S. This is only partly because women are still more likely than men to take time off from their careers to raise children.
(Photo Credit: Tax Credits/Flickr)
The Atlantic recently looked at those rare jobs where women earn more than men:
1. Part-time workers.
Recent research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows what women who work 35 hours a week earn 11 percent more than men who work the same amount, and women who work 25 hours a week earn 4 percent more.
Why?
“My guess is that much (though certainly not all) of the explanation boils down to two reasons: marriage and children,” writes Jordan Weissmann. “Women, including highly educated professionals, tend to cut their hours once they have families, especially if their husband has a higher salary. Men, meanwhile, are more likely to keep working a full week. And so part-time women, as a group, are somewhat more likely to have gone to college, and far less likely to have dropped out of high school, than part-time men, who may well be working shorter shifts for lack of better options.”
2. Counselors, including, as Weissmann points out, roles ranging from guidance counselors to therapists without advanced degrees.
3. Health practitioner support technologist and technicians, including X-ray technicians.
If those last two entries seem surprising, bear this in mind: PayScale’s Women at Work data package found that the difference between men’s and women’s earnings could be partly attributed to the types of jobs they chose.
“Women earn less than men on average because they often fill jobs with a large societal benefit, but small monetary benefit,” says Katie Bardaro, lead economist for PayScale. “Instead of focusing the debate on the misbegotten gender wage gap, we should instead examine why women are absent from high-paying jobs and industries, like technology, engineering and executive positions.”
In other words, women are more likely to choose jobs like counseling and health support, but because both require a certain amount of education and skill, they’re also likely to be relatively well-paid for doing them.
Tell Us What You Think
Were you surprised that these are the only three jobs where women make more? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.
Leave a Reply