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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that women in Missouri who were full-time wage and salary workers in 2011 earned an average of $628 dollars a week. That’s 74.7 percent of the $841 dollars of weekly earnings for Missouri men. As KSMU’s Samuel Crowe reports, this percentage ranks as the fifth lowest in the United States.
Missouri’s ratio of women’s to men’s earnings reached a peak high of 80.8 percent in 1998, and has stayed in the 75-77 percent range since 2003 – until now. Linda Nickisch, an economist with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, says the ratio in Missouri in 2011 is down from the year before.
“In 2010, women’s earnings as a percent of men’s was 75.2 percent. So it did take a little bit of a dip from 2010 to 2011,” Nickish said.
Missouri is tied with West Virginia for the fifth lowest ratio of women’s to men’s earning in the United States. California ranks at the top at 89.9 percent, while Louisiana is at the bottom with a ratio of 68.7 percent.
Nickish says that Missouri women fare better in the average amount of weekly earnings across the country, at 34th nationwide.
But as she points out, there’s one statistic that every state has in common.
“Women in all 50 states earn less than their male counterparts. So Missouri is no different than the rest of the states.
Claire Major, the vice president of the Missouri chapter of the National Organization for Women, says this inequality is simply wrong.
“Women have never made equal to what men have made. It’s been a fight for a long time,” Major said.
And fight they will. Major says NOW will continue to lobby in Jefferson City for equal wages this coming legislative session.
You can visit our website, ksmu.org, for more information on these earnings statistics.
For KSMU News, I’m Samuel Crowe.