Business News

La. gender pay gap grows from 2014-2105

Median weekly earnings of $630 in 2015 represent 76.1 percent of the $828 median weekly earnings of male counterparts.

In 2015, Louisiana women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings of $630 or 76.1 percent of the $828 median weekly earnings of their male counterparts, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Dec. 20.

Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that the 2015 Louisiana women’s to men’s earnings ratio fell from 2014, down 1.4 percentage points. Nationwide, women earned $726 per week or 81.1 percent of the $895 median for men.

In Louisiana, the ratio of women’s to men’s earnings trended upward from 1997 to 2005 before declining to a series low of 65 percent in 2009. The ratio reached a series high of 77.5 percent in 2014 before declining to 76.1 percent in 2015.

Despite the latest decline, the general trend has been upward since the 2009 series low, and the 2015 women’s to men’s earnings ratio was the second highest level since the series began in 1997.

Read the full report here.