Gender Pay Gap Identified at Some U.S. Science Agencies

Posted January 7, 2020

External Article: Nature

A study on the gender pay gap in some federal agencies co-authored by School of Public Policy Chair Kaye Husbands Fealing was featured in an article in Nature on Jan. 7, 2020.

Husbands Fealing and her co-authors analyzed employment information for the years 1994 to 2008 from the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the Center for Disease Control. The study found that while the pay gap between women and men decreased during the years examined, it still existed, with certain behaviors contributing to the gap.

Those behaviors included patterns in agencies not adhering to the set general schedule payscale, with men receiving the most benefit when agencies varied pay, and that men most commonly held the highest-paying jobs.

Excerpt:

The researchers examined seven agencies: the NIH, the EPA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Energy (DOE). In each agency, the researchers found that the total wage gap significantly declined over the 14-year period they examined. But sizable pay disparities persisted, and the largest was at the NSF. In 2007, women at this agency were paid on average $0.73 to every dollar that male employees earned — an increase from $0.58 per men’s dollar in 1994.

The gaps were smaller when the researchers looked at individual jobs, however. In some agencies, men and women received the same wages for the same job. The analysis, which did not include job titles, examined all positions, including those that do not require a PhD or other degree. In a statement, the NSF, which partially funded the study, says that it is aware that gender pay gaps exist. “NSF will add it to the information we use to reassess our policies as we work to attract the best talent.” The agency says that its metrics might look different from those of some agencies, such as the NIH and the DOE, because its workforce is much smaller, and it doesn’t always follow the general schedule (GS), a strict, government-wide scale that determines wages on the basis of experience and job type.

Read the full article here.