Women still trail men in wages

WASHINGTON, March 1 (UPI) -- American women have made significant gains in education in recent years, but remain behind men on pay day, a White House report released Tuesday showed.

Women in undergraduate and graduate programs outnumber men, the report titled, "Women in America" said. Between 1972 and 2008, men and women have increased their enrollment in college as a percentage of those completing high school. But "the increase was greater for females than males," the report said.

By 2008, 72 percent of female high school graduates enrolled in college, compared with 66 percent of their male counterparts.

"Women also have higher graduation rates at all academic levels," the report found. They also took more Advanced Placement exams and earned more post-secondary degrees than men.

The trend also extends to overseas. Within the 30 developed nations of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, a 2010 report said, 58 percent of undergraduate degrees were bestowed on women.

In addition, while the percentage of adult men looking for work or working has declined since the 1950s, the percentage of women participating in the workforce has grown from 33 percent in 1950 to about 61 percent today.

The earnings gap, meanwhile, narrowed, but has not closed completely. "Among full-time wage and salary workers, women's weekly earnings as a percent of men's [have] increased from 62 percent in 1979 to 80 percent in 2009," the report said.

Working wives are earning a larger share of household income, contributing 29 percent in 2008, up 5 percentage points from 1988.