A Darker Side to Claim's of Women's Earnings Progress

This morning I listened to NPR and was interested in the latest findings about the economics of marriage. New research by the Pew Research Center has found more men are marrying women with higher incomes than anytime in the past. Both the radio and newspapers portrayed this in a positive way for women—that women are becoming more educated than men and in fact are making gains in the workforce. I wish that were the entire story. Unfortunately there is a disturbing and darker side to this. Is it really women making gains in wages or could it also be that high paying jobs, traditionally held by men, are disappearing? Haven’t we all heard that during this recession most jobs being lost are by men? According to the US department of labor, women’s median wages were still 79.9% of men’s in 2008. While women’s wages have been increasing as a percent of men’s over the past few decades those gains are masked by what is happening to average male earnings. They have been stagnating at best. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, real starting pay for men with bachelor’s degrees fell 3.2 percent between 2000 to 2007 and 1.7 percent among women during that time. This isn’t only about gender it’s about what’s happening to the middle class. And it’s not a pretty picture.