Wage-Gap Data Table
Managers, Administrators & Professionals
  Data Tables
• General Categories
• Tech/Sales/Support
• Service Occupations
• Precision/Craft/Repair
• Operators/Inspectors
• Farming/Forestry/Fishing
• Women's Work
• Men'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 job 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.

I have included sub-category breakdown information only when that detail shows significant variance of the experience of women in that category, either compared to the category averages, or within the sub-categories. For example, a category may show a high percentage of women employed in general, but the sub-category detail may show that the majority of the women in that general category are all employed in one or two sub-categories. In another instance, the sub-category median pay for women may vary widely from the median pay associated with the general category.

Managers & Professionals
Full-Time Workers - 1999
Occupational Categories
as defined by the
Department of Labor
Percent
Female
Median Wage Female Wage
as % of
Male's
Female  Male 
All 49.4 681 952 71.5
Mangers/Administrators 46.7 652 967 67.5
  Public Administrators 50.8 725 1007 72.0
  Financial 50.6 703 1,154 60.9
  Personnel/Labor 59.7 742 1,014 73.2
  Purchasing 46.8 699 989 70.7
  Marketing/Advertising/PR 36.5 800 1,241 64.4
  Education 59.7 819 1,076 76.2
  Health/Medicine 76.7 714 1,006 71.0
  Food/Lodging 47.5 461 617 74.7
  Property/Real Estate 55.9 578 679 85.2
  Managment Related* 58.3 630 847 74.4
* Includes Accountants, Inspectors, Trainers, Analysts, Buyers
Professional Specialty 52.0 707 939 75.3
  Engineers/Architects 10.5 907 1,052 86.3
  Math/Computer Scientists 31.9 876 1,056 82.9
  Natural Scientists 27.8 731 939 77.9
  Physicians 27.2 852 1,364 62.4
  Registered Nurses 91.0 747 791 94.4
  Pharmacists 46.7 1,105 1,222 90.5
  Therapists 71.9 707 793 89.1
  Teachers: College/Univ. 37.8 859 1,038 82.7
  Teachers: Other 73.5 659 768 85.8
    Preschool/Kindergarten 97.9 442 * *
    Elementary 83.2 697 785 88.8
    Secondary 55.8 722 803 89.9
    Special Education 83.7 664 744 89.3
  Counselors (Ed & Voc) 69.6 742 902 82.3
  Librarians/Archivists 81.4 684 * *
  Social/Urban Planners 53.6 682 847 80.5
  Social Workers 68.8 579 661 87.7
  Lawyers 33.1 974 1,340 72.7
  Writers/Artists 45.5 605 748 80.9
* Not shown where base is less than 50,000 workers.
Data from BLS Report: Highlights of Women's Earnings - 1999 (PDF)

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.