By Allassandra Malito
There’s good reason why women in the NBC survey would be less likely to take a cut. Women were paid 79.6 cents on the dollar compared to men in 2015, barely changed from 78.6 cents on the dollar in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The gap is in part due to employers simply deciding to pay women less, said Ariane Hegewisch, the program director for employment and earnings at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a nonprofit think-tank in Washington, D.C.
Men may make more in jobs even if the men and women are doing the same tasks, and women are more likely to dominate fields like the services industry and education, which are not typically high-paying. Men dominate in science, technology, engineering and mathematic or STEM fields, which tend to pay more.
