Numbers Don’t Fully Explain Women’s Pay Disparity

By Robbie Owens

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – A new study out Monday says women in Texas are still earning less than men. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median weekly income for women working full time in Texas was $619 last year, roughly 85 percent of the $730 median income for men.
 
But economists say, the numbers, in this case, don’t tell the whole story.
 
“Most of that difference in wages is explained by specific factors,” says Mike Davis, an economist at SMU’s Cox School of Business. “Women tend to pick occupations, that on general, pay less than men.”
 
Davis says women are also more likely to voluntarily separate from the work force – usually to raise children.
 
“So if you quit for five to six years to get your kids into kindergarten,” says Davis,” your wages don’t increase, and then you start back and you’re below the men that are in your peer group.”...