Women Still Underrepresented Among Highest Earners

Summary 06-03 / March 2006 U.S. Department of Labor U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Women’s median usual weekly

earnings were 81.0 percent of

men’s in 2005, among full-time wage

and salary workers. While this proportion has risen over the last several decades, women still are underrepresented among the highest earners and overrepresented among the

lowest. These finding are based on

data from the Current Population

Survey.

In 2005, 103.6 million Americans

were full-time wage and salary workers; of these, 56.4 percent were men,

and 43.6 percent were women. Yet,

women made up only 31.0 percent

of workers in the highest earnings

category (the top fourth or fourth

quartile of workers by earnings).

Moreover, women made up a slight

majority of the lowest earnings category (the bottom fourth or first

quartile), 53.2 percent, compared

with 46.8 percent for men. (See

chart.)

The industries in which women

and men worked differed both overall and among lowest and highest

earning workers. For example, more

than a third of women, but only 10

percent of men, worked in education and health services. About 12

percent of men worked in construction, compared with 1.5 percent of

women. Women and men in the lowest earnings category were twice as

likely to work in leisure and hospitality and somewhat more likely to

work in wholesale and retail trade

than were women and men overall.

Despite these similarities, differences surfaced in where women and

men in the lowest earnings category

worked. Education and health services had the largest portion of

women with lowest earnings (29.0

percent), while manufacturing and

construction combined accounted

for that portion of men with lowest

earnings. (See table.)

Continued on back

Education and health services

attracted the greatest proportion of

women with the highest earnings,

40.4 percent. Professional and business services and financial activities

also accounted for relatively large

shares of highest earning women.

Combined, these three industry

groups accounted for more than 60

percent of highest earning women,

as well as for a relatively large share

of men with the highest earnings.

Two industries that accounted for

more men than women among the

highest earners were construction

and manufacturing. More than 1 in

4 highest earning men worked in

these industries, compared with 1

in 10 women.

From 2000 to 2005, the number

of women in the lowest earnings

quartile was little changed, 14.1 million in 2000 and 13.8 million in 2005.

However, the number of men in that

quartile rose from 11.2 million in

2000 to 12.1 million in 2005. As a

result, the percentage of lowest earners who were women decreased

slightly. In the highest quarter of

the earnings spectrum, the same 6-

year period saw the number of

women workers increase—from 7.2

million in 2000 to 8.0 million in

2005—while the number of men was

little changed: 18.1 million in 2000,

compared with 17.9 million in 2005.

These shifts caused an increase in

the percentage of highest earners

who were women.

In summary, more women than

men were in the lowest earnings category, and women were under-represented among the highest earners.

Both men and women with lowest

earnings worked in industries typically thought of as low wage—for

example, wholesale and retail trade,

and leisure and hospitality. Education and health services accounted

for large concentrations of both highest and lowest earning women. The

highest earners were concentrated in

industries including financial activities and professional and business

services.

For additional information on

women’s and men’s earnings and a

technical description of the Current

Population Survey from which the

data used in this summary were derived, contact Sara Kline, an economist in the Division of Labor Force

Statistics, Office of Employment

and Unemployment Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, DC 20212. Telephone: (202)

691-6386. E-mail: kline.sara@bls.gov.

Information in this summary will

be made available to sensory-impaired individuals upon request.

Voice phone: (202) 691-5200. Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339.

This report is in the public domain

and may be reproduced without permission.

Quartile

(lowest earning 

workers)

Chart 1. Percent of full-time wage and salary workers by quartile and sex, 2005

All workers First Second Third Fourth

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Women Men

(highest earning 

workers)
Table 1. Employed full-time wage and salary workers by selected quartiles of usual weekly earnings and major industry, 2005

annual averages

Number of workers (in thousands) ...................... 45,154 58,406 13,761 12,129 8,028 17,864

Industry (in percent): .............................................

Agriculture and related industries ................... 0.4 1.3 0.8 3.1 0.1 0.3

Nonagriculture and related industries ............. 93.6 92.8 95.8 94.4 92.1 91.7

Mining ........................................................... .1 .9 .1 .4 .3 1.2

Construction ................................................ 1.5 12.3 1.3 14.0 1.3 8.4

Manufacturing ............................................. 9.6 18.1 10.3 15.0 9.0 18.9

Wholesale and retail trade ......................... 12.7 15.1 18.3 18.4 7.2 11.9

Transportation and utilities ......................... 3.0 8.1 2.3 5.8 2.6 8.0

Information ................................................... 2.6 2.6 1.7 1.4 3.8 3.9

Financial activities ....................................... 9.8 5.9 6.3 3.4 11.8 8.8

Professional and business services ......... 8.8 9.9 7.3 9.6 11.9 13.4

Education and health services ................... 34.6 9.7 29.0 6.9 40.4 11.9

Leisure and hospitality ................................ 6.9 6.4 13.1 14.7 2.1 2.5

Other services ............................................ 4.0 3.9 6.3 4.9 1.9 2.7

Public administration ......................................... 6.0 5.9 3.4 2.6 7.8 8.0

NOTE: Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.

All workers Lowest earning workers

(first quartile)

Highest earning workers

(fourth quartile) Item

Women Men Men Men Women Women