Think You’re Worth 24% Less? (Some of your employers do.)

On average, women make only 76 cents for every dollar earned by men. To match men's earnings for 2004, women have to work from Jan. 1, 2004, to April 19, 2005 - on extra four months.

If you think your college degree is going to change this statistic, you’re wrong.

Gains in Learning, Gaps in Earning is a research tool that was launched by the AAUW Educational Foundation earlier this year. The findings were disturbing. Although women have made remarkable strides in education during the past three decades, these gains have yet to translate into full equity in pay - even for college-educated women who work full time. A typical college-educated woman working full time earns $44,200 a year compared to $61,800 for college-educated male workers - a difference of $17,600!

Worse, in every state in the country, women with advanced degrees still earn less than men with only a bachelor’s degree.

On April 19, 2005, AAUW took to Capitol Hill to join members of the National Coalition on Pay Equity and congressional members to discuss the persistent pay gap and to support the introduction of two new pieces of legislation aimed at solving this problem.

The event was also an opportunity for the AAUW Educational Foundation to release the results of a national poll that it conducted in March of 2005 that reveals the attitudes of Americans when it comes to the pay gap.

Among the AAUW Educational Foundation’s findings:

• Americans are well aware that a pay gap exists between male and female full-time workers.
• Women are more likely to believe there is a pay gap, and they estimate a bigger gap, on average, than do men.
• Democratic and Republican women both agree that a pay gap exists.
• Over half (56 percent) of Americans include employers’ unwillingness to promote young women because they may leave when they have children as either the first (29 percent) or second (27 percent) most important reason for the pay gap.
• Neither men nor women consider women’s skills and educational attainment an important factor in the gender pay gap, although both identify sex discrimination as a factor.

AAUW strongly supports efforts to close the persistent wage gap between men and women. Remind the country and our leaders that equity is still an issue, and equal pay is essential in eliminating wage discrimination. Let AAUW help you take action now.

• Get the facts. Find out the gender pay gap between the earnings of college-educated men and women in your state with AAUW’s Gains in Learning, Gaps in Earning resources.
• Learn more about the issues involved. Visit AAUW’s pay equity resource page to read AAUW’s position paper on the issue, download flyers with information that you can use on campus, and much more.
• Interested in the full AAUW poll results on pay equity. Read more.