Women would earn more and narrow the gender pay gap if they got jobs now dominated by men in fast-growing fields such as information technology, welding or truck mechanics, according to a new study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
The study, which examined 473 occupations, found women in only about one-third of so-called middle-skill positions that pay at least $35,000 a year, even though they dominate in the category. About 80 percent of those women make less than $30,000 a year. Middle-skill jobs typically require some training after high school but no college degree.
“Women are being excluded from higher-paying middle-skill jobs where they’d have a chance to earn a living wage,” said Ariane Hegewisch, IWPR’s program director for employment and earnings and the lead author of the study. “Yet employers lack enough qualified workers to fill demand for some of these fast- growing better jobs.”
In manufacturing, where more than 500,000 job openings are expected over the next decade, just 7 percent of workers are women, according to an IWPR analysis of government data. In transportation, distribution and logistics, where as many as 1.3 million jobs are anticipated, 9 percent are women; in IT, where about 240,000 openings are forecast, 27 percent are women.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
The study found that many in lower-paying female-dominated jobs already have some or most of the skills necessary for male- dominated roles. Library assistants, 80 percent of whom are women, earn about $24,000 a year less than IT support specialists, 75 percent of whom are men. Yet both jobs require knowledge of computer software, hardware and databases and customer contact, the report said.
Similarly, women who now fill manufacturing jobs as packaging and filling machine operators earn roughly $26,000 a year. They could, with additional training, compete for positions as welders, which pay a median $39,000 a year. Both jobs require arm-hand steadiness, manual dexterity and control precision.
“We’ve long heard about women getting paid less for the same jobs but this study shows them getting paid less for similar skills,” said Chauncy Lennon, head of Workforce Initiatives at JPMorgan Chase & Co., which supported the study as part of its $250 million, five-year New Skills at Work program. “Increasing access to new kinds of skills training for women would go a long way in tackling their under-representation in good manufacturing, IT and transportation jobs.”
Overall, women’s median annual earnings have remained at about 20 percent below those of men for the past decade, government data show. The different jobs men and women hold account for more than half of this pay gap, according to researchers at Cornell University.
If 10 percent of women in middle-skill jobs took male- dominated jobs, their median earnings could increase by more than 50 percent from about $37,000 to about $56,000, according to the IWPR analysis.