Income Distribution
Michael Ferrai
Economics 001
Income Distribution
November 13, 2012 Over the last 30 years the participation of women in the work force has increased dramatically, unfortunately the pay gap between men and women has not decreased much at all. On top of that the pay gap between the classes of working America is increasing. While there have been some improvements there is still a lot of room for improvement. As of 2011 women’s median hourly wages were about 84 percent of males median hourly wages. Also a woman who just graduated high school earned about $9.92 an hour on average, while a man who graduated the same year earned $11.68. A man that just graduated college earns, on average, $21.68 per hour, while a woman who graduated college the same year would earn $18.80 per hour on average. When it comes to poverty women are getting the short end of the stick as well. The percentage of men earning poverty level wages was about 25 percent, on the other hand percent, almost one third, of women were earning poverty level wages in 2011. This means that about one third of women were earning $11.06 or less per hour. That is the minimum wage of a full time, full year worker to be able to support a family of four at the poverty level. The majority of poverty-level wage workers, 55.1 percent, in America in 2011 were women. Women aren’t just affected by the pay gap between genders but also but the job related benefits. While it isn’t a huge gap men’s employer provided pension coverage was almost 2 percent higher than women’s. Men who received employer provided health insurance coverage was 55.1 percent while women who received employer provided health insurance coverage was 49.9 percent. While the gender gap in pay inequality continues to be a problem there is another problem and that is the income inequality between classes. In 2010 the highest income 1 percent of people in the country earned 17.2 percent of all income in the United States economy. The bottom
Economics 001
Income Distribution
November 13, 2012 Over the last 30 years the participation of women in the work force has increased dramatically, unfortunately the pay gap between men and women has not decreased much at all. On top of that the pay gap between the classes of working America is increasing. While there have been some improvements there is still a lot of room for improvement. As of 2011 women’s median hourly wages were about 84 percent of males median hourly wages. Also a woman who just graduated high school earned about $9.92 an hour on average, while a man who graduated the same year earned $11.68. A man that just graduated college earns, on average, $21.68 per hour, while a woman who graduated college the same year would earn $18.80 per hour on average. When it comes to poverty women are getting the short end of the stick as well. The percentage of men earning poverty level wages was about 25 percent, on the other hand percent, almost one third, of women were earning poverty level wages in 2011. This means that about one third of women were earning $11.06 or less per hour. That is the minimum wage of a full time, full year worker to be able to support a family of four at the poverty level. The majority of poverty-level wage workers, 55.1 percent, in America in 2011 were women. Women aren’t just affected by the pay gap between genders but also but the job related benefits. While it isn’t a huge gap men’s employer provided pension coverage was almost 2 percent higher than women’s. Men who received employer provided health insurance coverage was 55.1 percent while women who received employer provided health insurance coverage was 49.9 percent. While the gender gap in pay inequality continues to be a problem there is another problem and that is the income inequality between classes. In 2010 the highest income 1 percent of people in the country earned 17.2 percent of all income in the United States economy. The bottom