Even in 2008, women are still paid less than men for the same jobs. Further, women have actually stopped closing the wage gap with men - and evidence can be found in some ironic places.
According to a new report from the Keystone Research Center, the slow-but-steady progress made by Pennsylvania women workers between the late 1970s and the early 1990s has come to a halt.
Since 2003, women workers have actually lost ground to men, with the 2007 wage gap remaining at almost $4 per hour, according to the center's report, "The State of Women in the Pennsylvania Workforce 2008."
In Lycoming County, women's average salaries are about $32,000 while men's are $42,500- almost a 33 percent difference.
And the problem has national reach too, according to an area expert.
"The Obama campaign group had 33 male and 31 female full-time staffers," Dr. Dennis Williams, associate professor of management at the Pennsylvania College of Technology, said. "The male staffers were getting paid between $56,000 and $57,000 per year, while the women were getting paid between $46,000 and $47,000 per year."
That information came from the 2007 American Association of University Women report, Williams said.
So why is this wage gap happening?
The center's report said that the gap is not primarily the result of education gaps, like most people may think. As recently as the 1970's, men in Pennsylvania has substantially more education than women but in 2007 for the first time a higher share of Pennsylvania working-age women had a college degree than working-age men.
And because education isn't the main reason for the wage gap, the center says that women earn less than men partly because of occupational segregation. Women are over-represented in certain lower-paying professions, including caregiving.
Nine out of every 10 child care workers, nearly 80 percent of waitstaff and three out of four cashiers are women, the center reports.
Williams said that many people still view women as the primary care-giver for their children, so if a child gets sick, daycares and schools usually call mothers and ask them to come get their child.
"Some employees can't withstand that," Williams said. "They have to have that person there. They don't have anyone to take their place."
Williams said that when women are interviewing for jobs they should not reveal plans to have a family, because although it shouldn't, it could sway an employer's decision to hire someone.
"If you go to an interview and they ask you if you are planning a family, you have to tell them it's really none of their business," Williams said.
Williams said another outgrowth of the gender wage gap is more women becoming entrepreneurs and starting their own businesses.
"There are loans and grants for minorities that men would not be able to get," Williams said. " A lot of people don't realize that."
The findings in the center's study is not unique to the state, but mirrors national trends.
In 2007, women earned 81 percent of what men earned.
The center states that eliminating the gender wage gap requires the public policies to help all workers. Such steps in the center's estimation include increasing minimum wage to living wage levels at the low end of the labor market, strengthening career paths for low-wage workers, including opportunities for women to enter higher-paying traditionally male occupations and strengthening workers' right to choose union representation.
