Women deserve equal pay

In the 2011 report on Women in the Labor Force, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed last week that women in Nevada who were full-time wage and salary workers in 2010 earned only 81.8 percent of the weekly earnings by men in similar positions.

The median weekly earnings for Nevada women in 2010 were about $614, compared to $751 for men, which is actually a small increase—about 1.1 percent—for women from the 2009 statistics. Throughout the years, the ratio of female-to-male earnings in Nevada has grown—from 73.9 percent in 1997 to 88.3 percent in 2005—but this growth is not nearly satisfying enough.

Across the nation, the ratio of female-to-male earnings ranged from 68.8 percent in West Virginia to 91.3 percent in Delaware. The states with the highest ratios—those higher than 85 percent —were primarily located in the Northeast or along the U.S. border with Mexico.

What seems strange to me is that we can live in a society in which anyone even marginally more intelligent than Rush Limbaugh understands that women are just as capable of achieving great things as are men, yet we are still struggling to reflect this in our institutions. Women still have a more difficult time finding jobs, and when they do, they are paid less than men. They have fewer opportunities for advancements and raises, and when they aren’t offered these things, it is attributed to the fact that women are “meek” and too afraid to be assertive in the workplace.

The BLS report explains that the differences between states—or the reason that a state such as Delaware could be the most progressive in the country in terms of female-to-male earnings—are largely due to variations in occupations and industries found in each state and the age composition of each state’s labor force.

This reasoning just doesn’t explain why neither Nevada nor the United States has made more than miniscule progress toward fair pay for both men and women, and it doesn’t explain why women continue to be discriminated against in the job market and are often held back from advancing in their fields.

Nevada is one of 24 states that has never elected a female governor. The University of Nevada, Reno, which is currently searching for its next president, has seen 15 presidents, and none have been women.

Nevada is a pretty great state that has seen contributions from many competent women, and it’s ridiculous that these statistics exist to suggest otherwise. Nevadans need to work much, much harder in the future to ensure that the true diversity of our state is accurately represented—in leadership roles, in the workforce, in average wages and elsewhere.

A 1.1 percent increase in median wages is simply not enough, and it’s embarrassing. The fact that women earn 81.8 percent of men’s earnings in Nevada is not as bad as it has been in the past, and it is not as bad as it is in some other states, of course. But that just means that we are that much closer to eliminating this inequality. Women consistently work to make contributions to the state of Nevada, and it is time that these contributions are compensated at the same level as the work that men do.

If Nevada is not careful about this issue, half of its workforce may pack up and move to Delaware, where the wages are higher and alcohol can only be sold between 9 a.m. and 1 a.m. And I really don’t want to move to Delaware.