Women Retail Workers Make Less, Get Fewer Benefits Than Men, Study Finds
Editorial:
From the article:
In a time when jobs are scarce, retail is one of the few industries hiring -- creating about 500,000 temporary jobs this holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation. But for women taking on these jobs, their pay may be less than that of their male colleagues.
Women retail workers earn an average of $9.77 an hour, compared to the $10.64 an hour earned by men, according to a new survey of 435 retail workers in the New York City area conducted by the Retail Action Project and the Murphy Institute. One dollar can make a significant difference when it comes to salaries that barely cover the cost of living. Retail workers of both sexes make less than what the Living Wage Project considers to be adequate to live in New York City -- $11.86 an hour.
"It continues to shock me that even in a female dominated industry, women are earning less than men," Stephanie Luce, one of the authors of the report and a professor at the City University of New York said in a statement.
Despite laws that prohibit gender discrimination in the work place, the pay gap between men and women remains an issue outside of the retail industry; women earned 77 cents for every dollar that men earned in 2010, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity. The Committee is a coalition of women's and civil rights organizations, unions and other groups that work to eliminate pay disparities.
In retail, women make up 64 percent of low paid "frontline" cashier and stock clerk retail positions,according to a 2008 study from the Ford Foundation's Economic Development Program. Meanwhile, they make up a mere 33 percent of higher paid management positions.
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Source:
Huffington Post
URL:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/21/women-retail-workers_n_1163996.html
Date:
December 23, 2011
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