Women occupy the majority of the working class in several fields, and yet, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, their salaries are still reported to be significantly less than men.
According to CSULB career counselor Angi Carrillo-Humphreys, the most popular departments at Cal State Long Beach for women to major in are nursing, education and psychology.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), women have entered the labor market with education levels equal to men and are rapidly being employed in professional, technical and clerical fields.
In 2010, women who were full-time wage and salary workers earned a weekly average of $670, compared to the $825 median weekly average of a man. Therefore, women earn 81 percent of a man’s income, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
“I do not know of any careers in the education or psychology arena where women are receiving higher salaries than men,” said Bita Ghafoori, assistant department chair in the department of advanced studies in education and counseling.
Ghafoori added that women in these fields routinely make at least 25 percent less than their male counterparts.
In 2010, the BLS reported women occupied the majority in fields pertaining to management, business and finance, among others. Men held the majority of occupations relating to natural resources, construction and maintenance, among others.
According to the Department of Labor, gender differences occur in occupation; however, they are reportedly a result of voluntary choices made by men and women, such as the growth of the white-collar occupations and the rising women’s participation in the labor force.
Ghafoori said she “speculates men have better negotiating capabilities or, alternatively, women accept lower salaries due to having more need for work [because of costly caretaking responsibilities].”
In the 2010 report from the Department of Labor, four occupational categories were recorded where females received a higher income than males. Female counselors, bill and account collectors, stock clerks and order fillers earned between a 5 and 10 percent more than men.
The occupation where women received the highest earnings compared to men was in the food preparation and serving industry.