The Glass CeilingNever Gives
CNN came out with a report this week touting the best states to live in if you are a working woman. Based upon median annual incomes of full-time employed women, it compares this amount to that earned by full-time employed men.
Let�s take a look at how Indiana fared in the rating along with four states that border us.
State Median income Rank Percent compared Rank
full-time Women to full-time men
Indiana $25,000 34 67.6 percent 42
Michigan $28,000 14 67.7 percent 45
Ohio $26,717 19 66.8 percent 48
Illinois $28,000 14 69.4 percent 42
Kentucky $24,288 39 71.4 percent 32
My take on this information is there isn�t a whole lot of difference in the earning power of the average female in this five-state region. And in comparison to what men earn, the disparity among states is negligible.
What is so hard to deal with is the percentage of earnings for women when compared to men doing the same job. We�re a year into the new millennium and we still earn less than two-thirds of our male counterparts.
When you look at the state ranked No. 1, you have to travel all the way to the District of Columbia where women earn 89.2 cents for every dollar men earn. That�s well above the national average of 72.7 cents. In Indiana, we fall 7 percent below the national average.
So in 2025 when this soon-to-be-granddaughter-of-mine is out of college and entering the work force, where can she expect to be?
When the trends are taken into account, it will be more than 60 years before women will achieve wage parity. The sad picture here is this is obviously not going to happen in my lifetime. It may happen while my daughters are still living, but not in the workforce. It may happen at the end of my granddaughter�s work life if she works until retirement age, assuming retirement age stays at 65.
Most likely it will occur during the employment years of my great-granddaughter.
That is a sobering fact. Just when you think you may be cracking that glass ceiling, you learn that it hasn�t been even dented. I think, with these facts in front of us, that ceiling isn�t made of glass.
Titanium may be a better choice!
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