BOSTON, March 5 (UPI) -- Women in the United States are narrowing the pay gap with their male counterparts, a new study indicates.
In 2002, women ages 25 to 34 saw their incomes rise to 86 cents of every dollar earned by men, up from 65 cents in 1970, the report said. Further, women 15 to 24 made 91 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts, the smallest wage gap ever, the Boston Globe reported Friday.
Joyce Jacobsen, Andrews professor of economics at Wesleyan University and author of the study, attributed the rise in women's income to increased education, more work experience, higher earnings in such female-dominated professions as nursing and teaching, and possibly less gender discrimination.
"Marriage and children, which never had much effect on men's work patterns, now have less effect on women, too," she said.
Jacobsen also cited an overall decline in earnings for men through layoffs and the economic downturn.
