Slide Show | April 2013
8 Jobs That Pay Women More Than Men
The gender wage gap is alive and well in America. Despite numerous strides in the workplace, women make just 81 cents for every dollar pocketed by men, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, when BLS compared the median weekly pay of full-time workers by sex, women outearned men in only two occupations: social services counselor and health technician.
But all hope is not lost for working women in search of bigger paychecks. We asked PayScale, a compensation research firm, to scour the data it has collected over the past year to unearth fields that tend to pay female workers more than comparable male workers in similar circumstances. After cross-checking the jobs on PayScale's list against other government labor data, we homed in on eight promising careers that pay women more than men.
Rather than compare all male workers against all female workers in a given occupation, as the BLS does, PayScale made apples-to-apples comparisons between male and female workers in the same jobs with similar traits such as experience, location and education. While this doesn't guarantee that all women who enter these fields will earn more than men, it does pinpoint occupations that tend to compensate women better than comparable male colleagues.
There's no single reason why women in these eight particular jobs are better paid than men. Caren Goldberg, a management professor at American University who specializes in workplace discrimination and diversity, suggests that in male-dominated jobs, the few women present may be viewed as exceptional because they are succeeding in what are considered traditionally male roles. On the other hand, men in female-dominated professions may earn less because of negative biases about their capabilities.
Take a look at these eight wage-gap-defying careers for women.8 Jobs That Pay Women More Than Men