President Clinton took on the issue of wage discrimination Monday, pledging to spend nearly $30 million to close the gap between what men and women in the workforce earn. But unpublished data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest that women in the federal workplace are better off than their private-sector counterparts.
The median 1999 weekly earnings for women in the workforce at large, including all government and private sector employees, was $473. For federal women, it was $643. In general, women earn 76 percent of what men earn. But in the federal workforce, women earn 82.9 percent of what men do.
For the federal sector, "what this data suggests is not only higher earnings, but less of a variation between men and women," a Labor Department economist said.
Clinton's $27 million Equal Pay Initiative includes a $10 million allotment to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for training and awareness campaigns, and $17 million to the Labor Department to pursue industry partnerships, increase employer awareness of wage discrimination, and train women in non-traditional jobs.
"What the President did today is very, very important," said Irasema Garza, director of the Labor Department's Women's Bureau, because it brings awareness of this issue to the highest levels of government. But Clinton has a record of achievement for women, Garza said. "For political appointees, the President has done a tremendous job of bringing women into his administration," she said. "The number of African Americans and Latinos has been unprecedented."
Forty percent of today's political appointees, and one third of the current Cabinet, are women. Read more about the progress federal women have made in breaking through the glass ceiling in Dick Kirschten's February Government Executive story, Kicking Glass.
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