Pay Equity in the States

Abstract

Has any gender-based pay adjustment made by the states in the past 25 years had an effect on women's relative pay? The authors utilize a panel set of EEO-4 data on public sector employment by state to investigate the pay of women relative to men for 1999-2005. The authors find that there is a significant difference in the relative pay of women employed in states that have had a major pay adjustment in female-dominated job classes upward at any time in the past quarter century. Utilizing GLS multiple regression to predict the relative pay gaps by state, the authors find that women are better paid relative to men in the public sector than the private. The authors also find that women are better paid relative to men in Elazar's traditionalistic states as opposed to individualistic and moralistic ones, which are usually credited with having more progressive public policies.

How to Do a Salary Equity Study: With an Illustrative Example From Higher Education

“…Office of Personnel Management (OPM, 2014) found that few federal agencies conduct regular salary reviews. Reese and Warner (2012) found it “extremely difficult” (p. 326) to find anyone at the state level who could say whether a state was monitoring compliance with laws regarding pay equity. It is unlikely that local government is doing more.…”

Understanding Public Servants from a Global Perspective

“…In terms of compensation by gender, findings from researchers in the USA show that active policies in gender equity significantly improve the wage earnings of females (Reese and Warner 2012). In addition to a wage gap between men and women, research has shown that wage differentials (meaning the differences in salary between the public and private sectors) are higher for women in the public sector compared to their private sector counterparts (Llorens et al 2008).…”