1/20/11

Personal income inequality: gender factor

There is a traditional inequality topic - men vs. women. We use personal income measurements published by the U.S. Census Bureau (CB). These data come from the CPS Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Surveys (http://www.census.gov/cps/).


Figure 1 shows absolute numbers of population with income since 1967, as defined by the CB. A quick rise near 1974 is related rather to new definition of personal income than to real breakthrough in the female participation in economic life. Currently, the curves are very close showing approximately the same shares of people with income in both gender groups.

Figure 1. Absolute number of men and women with income since 1967.

Figure 2 displays male/female mean incomes (2009 US$) as measured for all people with income. We have also added relevant mean incomes in the age group between 15 and 24 years of age in order to stress age-dependent gender differences. The difference between the mean incomes seems to decrease with time, especially after 2000: the male mean income was on a slight decrease with the female mean income still growing. It is interesting that the male mean income in the youngest age group has not been growing since 1967 and the female one has been slowly increasing.


Figure 2. Male/female mean incomes for all populations of 15 years of age and over and those in the age group between 15 and 24 years.

Figure 3 depicts the share of women and their mean income relative to the overall population and mean income, respectively. The population share is close to 0.5 since 1977. The share of mean income has been increasing since 1977. It was only 0.42 in 1997 and reached 0.64 in 2009. Despite the increase the share does not look like decent.

Finally, Figure 4 illustrates the fall in the portion of population with income since 1990. It reached the peak of 0.94 in 1990 and then has been declining to 0.87 in 2009. This effect is not easy to explain.

Figure 3. Shares of female population and mean income in the overall mean values.


Figure 4. The portion of population with income

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