Wage-Gap Data Table
Men's Work
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• Women's Work
  Related Article
The Real 'Wage-Gap Myth'
 

This table was prepared using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Report # 943: Highlights of Women's Earnings in 1999 published in May of 2000. (The report is in pdf format, and requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader.) That report contains additional data, including more breakdowns of jobs categories by more precise sub-categories, median wage for all employees in a given category, and the number of people employed in each category by gender. It also includes a history of the wage gap since 1979.

Median wage is the amount that divides a category's earning distribution into two equal groups: half of the workers in that category make more than that amount, and half of the workers make less than that amount. The median wage is calculated on "usual weekly earnings" - wages and salaries before taxes and other deductions, and include any overtime pay, commissions or tips usually received. Self-employed workers are excluded. The term "usual" is defined to mean more than half the weeks worked during the past 4 or 5 months.

This chart presents the occupations according to the percentage of male workers in each occupation, from highest to lowest (as highlighted in the heading). This chart is also available sorted in descending order by number of male workers and by median wage.

20 Leading Occupations
of Employed Men
1999 Annual Averages
Occupations Percent Male No. of
Male
Workers
(1,000s)
Median
Weekly Wage1
Male Wage
as % of Female's
Construction Trades 97.9 3,563 $545 130.7
Truck Drivers 96.6 2,409 $532 129.7
Mechanics & Repairers 95.6 3,824 $615 110.8
Material Moving Equip. Operators 94.5 1,005 $503 134.9
Engineers 89.9 1,749 $1,058 113.4
Farm workers, gardeners, groundskeepers 85.8 1,237 $329 118.8
Protective Service 83.8 1,791 $613 124.6
Handlers, equipment operators and laborers 81.4 3,230 $377 120.1
Precision production 77.2 2,619 $630 156.3
Janitors and Cleaners 70.5 1,054 $351 119.8
Machine Operators assorted materials 69.1 1,813 $487 139.1
Math & Computer Scientists 68.2 1,117 $1,056 120.5
Fabricators, assemblers 66.9 1,192 $495 135.6
Sales Supervisors and Proprietors 58.7 1,924 $691 152.2
Sales Reps: Finance and Business 56.0 1,019 $821 139.4
Technicians and related support 50.8 1,802 $728 137.9
Food Prep and service 49.6 1,583 $311 108.7
Sales: retail and personal services 44.3 1,475 $423 142.9
Managers and administrators n.e.c. 41.7 1,677 $847 134.4
Teachers except colleges/universities 26.5 1,130 $768 116.5
1 Wage and salary for full-time workers.
2 Not elsewhere classified.
3 Included in sales workers, personal and retail services.
4 Includes foods, drugs, health, and other commodities.
Data from BLS Report: Highlights of Women's Earnings - 1999 (PDF)