Women still work for less -- here's why

More than 120 years ago, a labor union sponsored a parade Sept. 5 that celebrated workers. That union wanted an end to child labor, an eight-hour workday and equal pay for women's work.

They won most of what they wanted. (Along with a national holiday, begun in 1894).

Even though "equal pay for equal work" became law in 1963, men still make more than women at every educational level and in every field.

In 1960, women who worked full-time made about 61 percent of what full-time male workers made. In 2004, it was 76 percent.

To think of that in terms of annual pay, the median income, where half of workers make more and half make less, was $31,374 for full-time working women -- and $41,194 for full-time working men.

The less education the worker has, the bigger the gender pay gap.

For high-school graduates older than 25, men's median salary is $31,183; women's is $19,821.

Kathy Yancey, 31, works as a certified nurse assistant at a nursing home in Evansville, Ind., and makes more than $10 an hour, which puts her in the top half of women workers with a high-school diploma. She's had the job for eight years.

She got pregnant while she was in high school, graduated and stayed home with her son. She worked at a day-care center making $5 or $6 an hour when he was 3, and then was paid to drive a relative to medical treatments.

"I was expecting another baby at the time. I needed another job that paid more," she said. "They had an ad in the paper for CNAs. I thought that would be a good thing to do."

So after a couple months of training, she got a job making $7 or $8 an hour.

There are many reasons for the pay differences -- more men in management, more men who are engineers, lawyers and doctors, more men in construction and factory work, and more women in teaching, social work, retail and health-care support positions.

The No. 1 occupation for men is manufacturing, more than 11.3 million men are in the field along with 4.8 million women.

The top field for women is health care, with more than 10.2 million serving, along with 3 million men. One-third of female workers are in education, health care or social assistance.

Another reason for the gap, experts say, is that women aren't as confident to negotiate for better salary offers or promotions.

Warren Farrell is a political scientist who wrote "Why Men Earn More: The startling truth behind the pay gap -- and what women can do about it."

Women frequently have years where they cut back to part-time work, or stay home with their kids, so even when they are working full-time, they may not have as much seniority as men their age.

Farrell believes that 70 percent of the gap is caused by women's choices to balance work and child-rearing.

And then there's discrimination.

Retail giant Wal-Mart is fighting a class-action lawsuit that states that although women make up two-thirds of the work force, they were only one-third of the salaried managers.

The lawsuit claims that men with less seniority and inferior evaluations were often promoted ahead of women.

"I think there's still discrimination against women," said Heidi Hartmann, a labor economist who's president of the Institute for Women's Policy Research. How much of the wage gap can be explained by discrimination is controversial, she said, but some estimates say it's between one-quarter and one-third.

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