Data from BLS report on women’s earnings suggest that raw gender pay gap is explained by age, marriage, hours worked

Of course it is. Anyone who has worked as an upper-level manager in any corporation has experienced this first-hand. 

earnings

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently releases an annual report every November on the “Highlights of Women’s Earnings” (since the BLS report actually analyzes equally both men’s and women’s earnings, one might ask why the report isn’t simply titled more accurately “Highlights of Earnings in America”?). Here’s the opening paragraph from the most recent BLS report “Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2015” that was just released:

In 2015, women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median usual weekly earnings that were 81 percent of those of male full-time wage and salary workers. In 1979, the first year for which comparable earnings data are available, women’s earnings were 62 percent of men’s. Since 2004, the women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio has ranged from 80 to 83 percent.

How do we explain the fact that women working full-time last year earned only 81 cents for every dollar men earned according to the BLS? Here’s how the National Committee on Pay Equity explains it:

The wage gap exists, in part, because many women and people of color are still segregated into a few low-paying occupations. Part of the wage gap results from differences in education, experience or time in the workforce. But a significant portion cannot be explained by any of those factors; it is attributable to discrimination. In other words, certain jobs pay less because they are held by women and people of color.

Via Economist Mark J. Perry

Right-Mind