Nevada women earn 85 percent of males’ pay

A national organization for women and families said Nevada women do better than females nationally in the wage gap situation when compared with pay for men.

Nevada women who work full time earn 85 cents on the dollar when compared with such males, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families, while the national gap shows women get 79 cents on the dollar compared with men.

“In Nevada,” the Washington, D.C.-based organization reported in a news release, “a woman who holds a full-time job is paid, on average, $35,993 while a man who holds a full-time job is paid $42,294 per year.” The organization said its new analyses for the nation and individual states were based on just-released census data.

Ronni Hannaman, Carson City Chamber of Commerce executive director, said she didn’t view the data as much of a news story considering it was based on census data rather than a more detailed comparison. Supervisor Lori Bagwell had much the same take, though she was pleased Nevada women weren’t trailing counterparts as much as across the nation.

“I would like to see it apples to apples,” said Bagwell, noting a comparison that stacked up pay rates for similar jobs held by men and women would reveal more. “I’m pleased to see that women are doing well and are more successful than nationally.”

Hannaman, meanwhile, cited her reasons for questioning the overall value of such an analysis. She said, for example, in Carson City there are a host of government jobs and they involve a range of pay for those who have them that’s set no matter the gender of the person holding the position. She also noted Nevada overall has many workers who receive tips in their work.

Supervisor Karen Abowd also raised questions, saying the analysis apparently left out women who have businesses.

“It doesn’t show the opportunity that there is for women in the state of Nevada,” she said, noting she and other women often work from their homes as entrepreneurs. Abowd is a licensed interior designer and also is a partner with her husband, Charlie Abowd, in their Cafe at Adele’s restaurant in Carson City. Abowd felt such census-driven national analyses masked data that wasn’t included,

Hannaman, Bagwell and Abowd weren‘t so much attacking the organization, they indicated, as noting more depth and better comparisons or inclusiveness would have enhanced the report from the organization based in the nation’s capital.

The organization, meanwhile, based on its analyses claimed Silver State women who were employed full time lost more than $2.4 billion annually in the aggregate.

“Nearly 128,000 family households in Nevada are headed by women,” said the partnership for women and families. “About 26 percent of those families, or 32,997 family households, have incomes that fall below the poverty level.”