EQUAL PAY REMAINS ELUSIVE FOR WOMEN.(Main)

Byline: Tim Bovee Associated Press

Women with four years of college earn roughly the same salary as men with only a high-school diploma, according to government statistics released Wednesday. At every education level, women make less money than men with the same amount of schooling.

An Associated Press analysis of Census Bureau numbers also found that the pay gap between men and women who work full time grows wider as they get older.

A college-educated woman between ages 18-24 earns an average 92 cents for every dollar earned by a man of the same age and education. Her earnings drop steadily and by the time she is between ages 55 and 64, the average female worker is making 54 cents for every dollar earned by a man.

The gap is just as wide between men and women workers who did not go to college.

It is illegal to pay women less for equal work. But the law says nothing about paying people differently if they do different jobs. And experts say that's the problem: The pay gap reflects lower salaries paid in fields traditionally dominated by women and the difficulty women have breaking through the so-called "glass ceiling" to higher-paid executive positions.

Some said women are paid less because it's profitable for their companies.

"... discrimination pays, otherwise it wouldn't have flourished so long," said Karen Nussbaum, executive director of 9 to 5, a Cleveland- based association of 15,000 working women. "You can bet people say, 'We can get her for less than we can get him.' You know it goes on."

Women earn less if they choose careers in fields dominated by women, such as nursing, social work, clerical jobs and teaching in the public schools, experts say.

"The fact of the matter is, many women don't wish to go into male-dominated occupations," said Carolin Head, assistant director of the American Association of University Women. "It is not acceptable in this country to tell nurses and teachers that if they want to make more, they need to choose a different occupation."

Heidi Hartman, an economist and director of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, said her organization's studies show a year of experience adds about 7 cents an hour to women's pay, compared with 24 cents an hour for men.

"Women's jobs have not been structured to reward experience," Hartman said. "That means there's no incentive to train them, to have productivity increases or skills increases."

Adult women with four years of high school on average earn $17,809 a year, about two-thirds of what a man with similar education would earn. With four years of college, women's earnings rise to $27,344.

That's only about $600 more than what an adult man with a high- school education earns. Four years of college increases his pay to $42,500, more than $15,000 above what a college-educated woman earns.

The study confirmed other findings that women get a raw deal on pay day and on the promotion list.

*The Feminist Majority Foundation recently found that fewer than 3 percent of the top jobs at Fortune 500 companies were held by women.

*A Labor Department study of promotion in nine big companies prompted Labor Secretary Lynn Martin in August to vow to shatter the "glass ceiling" that bars women and minorities from the executive suites.

*The Bureau of Labor Statistics since 1979 has collected figures showing women's pay overall has lagged behind men's. In that year women earned 62 cents for each dollar earned by men. Since then their earnings have crept up to 70 cents on the dollar.

*Even on the tennis court women lose out financially. Officials of the Wimbledon tournament in May said the women's champion would receive $367,000, but the men's champion would get $408,000.

Some groups, like the National Commission on Pay Equity, are lobbying employers to target women in their recruiting for traditionally male jobs.

"If the opportunities are there, women will train for them," said the organization's acting director, Kelly Jenkins. Also, "it's a problem of encouraging women to think about those careers as careers that are open to them."

The census study found men and women age 25 and over had about an equal chance of having a high-school education. For both, more than three-fourths had four years of high school, the highest level ever. In 1940, less than a fourth of Americans were that highly educated.

Women were less likely to get a full college education. Fewer than one out of every five women had at least four years of college, compared to one out of four men. Overall, 21 percent of Americans had four years of college or more. In 1940, fewer than 5 percent of Americans had that much college.

The study was based on a survey of 58,000 households covering level of education in 1989.

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