It’s a Woman’s World
This is Laura Tyson, writing at The New York Times Economix Blog:
[W]hile the real earnings of the median male worker have stagnated, the real earnings of the median female worker have increased considerably. Between 1979 and 2009, median real weekly earnings of full-time female workers increased by 31 percent, compared with an increase of only 2 percent for full-time male workers.
It would be interesting to further segment the population into women who continually work versus women who take time off to stay at home with children; Men too, if there is a significant number of them staying at home for a length of time.
I needed you to tell me this? I already knew it’s a woman’s world.
I want to say something about the glass ceiling, but not sure what.
In past decades the sectors of the economy that were predominantly staffed by men – such as manufacturing – were insulated from competition by trade barriers.
The global economy has reduced these types of jobs in the United States; while at the same time creating new sectors where women thrive. Notice in the New York Times graphic that both men and women without a high school diploma saw their wages fall. But men’s wages fell further probably because more men held these protected (often union) jobs.