Pay Equity in Social Work: Not!

Salary inequities on the basis of gender have been a traditional and long-standing problem in the United States. At the end of the 1960s, the salaries of women averaged only 59 percent of those received by men (Economic Report of the President, 1974). Earlier, a salary report on social workers was more positive than for the labor force as a whole but still problematic. Becker (1961), reporting on the membership of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), found that women earned about 86 percent of salaries earned by men ($7,700 for men, $6,600 for women). A 1987 report on social work salaries (NASW, 1987) indicated that male respondents earned on average about 30.5 percent more than female respondents, suggesting that the wage gap had grown significantly. Sutton (1982) found that among the membership of the Pennsylvania chapter of NASW, the median income for women was less than for men at all levels of job responsibility and that as job responsibilities increased, the range between median incomes also increased. For 1987 the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the ratio of women's wages to men's was 65 percent (Rich, 1989). The U.S. Bureau of the Census reported that the average income of men with one to three years of college was higher than that of all groups of women, including those who had attended graduate school (Schiller, 1989). Studies of social work salaries over the past 30 years have reached the same and seemingly indisputable conclusion: Salary disparities between male and female social workers exist, and the major explanatory factor is gender (Belon & Gould, 1977; Fanshel, 1976; Fortune & Hanks, 1988; Jennings & Daley, 1979; Scotch, 1971; Sutton, 1982; Yamatani, 1982; York, 1987). Sutton (1982) concluded that "the emphasis on affirmative action has not strongly affected the personnel practices of agencies employing social workers and that progress has not been made in eradicating sex discrimination in social work settings" (p. 214). In social work education, Sowers-Hoag and Harrison (1991) found that male faculty members with doctorates and holding the rank of full professor earned higher salaries than their female counterparts. Earlier, Gould and Bok-Lim (1976) found that even when rank, degree, publications, experience, and ethnicity were controlled, significant differences existed in the salaries of men and women social work faculty. The results of the Ridgewood Financial Institute's annual Fee and Practice Survey (Landers, 1992) of 1,905 psychologists, social workers, counselors, and marriage and family therapists in private practice revealed a wide income gap between men and women in full-time private practice. For social workers in private clinical practice, men earned median incomes of $57,273 compared with $47,000 for women (Landers, 1992). Equal Pay for Equal Work The concept of equal pay for equal work has been embodied in law since passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (P.L. 88-38). Although the gap between the salaries of men and women has narrowed in some fields, it remains, overall, quite persistent. A recent survey (Lappen, 1993) revealed that the gender wage gap had narrowed between 1983 and 1991 in several occupations, including secretary, police, guard, and firefighter. On the other hand, for each dollar earned by a male physician, female physicians earned 82 cents in 1983 and 54 cents in 1991; female lawyers earned 89 cents for every dollar earned by a man in 1983 and 59 cents in 1991. Unfortunately, the most recent data on social work salaries revealed that salary discrepancies on the basis of gender remain a persistent problem (Gibelman & Schervish, 1993). Social Work's Commitment NASW has long been concerned with the issue of equity and equality for women, both in society and within the profession of social work. A dual focus on achieving equity and equality has guided the association's efforts for two decades. …