The Government Accountability Office released a report Tuesday detailing the persistent gap between pay rates of male and female managers of the same rank and responsibility.
The report detailed that female managers earned 81 cents for every one dollar that their male counterparts earned and that since 2000, the pay gap had only closed by a meager two cents.
Director of Education, Work Force and Income Security at the Government Accountability Office Andrew Sherrill said that the report also found that “being a mother was associated with lower pay.” The findings were discussed at a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee, which is a body composed of Senate and House lawmakers specifically focused on economic issues.
The report further detailed that women who have children at a young age may have more challenges in the corporate world, especially as they typically tend to go for positions which have flexible schedules allowing for child care, according to specialist in gender and compensation Diana Furchtgott-Roth, of the Hudson Institute.
Furchtgott-Roth also commented that if women could work the same hours as men, then the pay gap would close. Other issues raised by the panel were that many corporate workplaces are not family friendly, often placing women in the position of choosing between career success and motherhood. Conversely men often benefit from becoming fathers with increases in pay for men with children.
The GAO report also told that female managers were less likely to be married or have children, overall more likely to be part-time employed and were younger and less educated than male managers in comparable positions.
