Business Notes COMPENSATION

The earnings gap between men and women is narrowing, the U.S. Census Bureau reports. But there is still a very considerable way to go before the two sexes can be considered on the same economic footing.

That was the main conclusion of a study released last week analyzing the various factors involved in why American men earn more than women. The good news is that the average earnings of women who work full time were up, to 70% of men's wages in 1986. In 1979, by contrast, the figure was only 62%, a statistic that had remained more or less constant since 1973. The advance in earnings amounted to "tremendous progress," according to Gordon Green, assistant chief of the bureau's population division.

What brought about the change? For one thing, greater numbers of women college graduates are filling higher-income professional and managerial jobs traditionally held by men, the study says. Another reason for the remaining wage difference is that men are still twice as likely as women to enter the most highly compensated fields. Moreover, women continue to interrupt employment more often than men (for childbearing, among other things), undermining seniority and availability for promotion. The report downplays an additional explanation for the male-female wage gap: outright sex discrimination.