The pay gap between men and women working in the federal government is not as wide as in the private sector. According to the General Accountability Office, women in the federal government make 11 cents less on the dollar than men,
The Washington Post reported.
The GAO said 4 cents of the 11 cent difference could be explained “by differences in measurable factors such as the occupations of men and women and, to a lesser extent, other factors such as years of federal experience and level of education.” Comparable figures show the gap is about 20 cents in the private sector, the Post reported.
While pennies do not seem like much, Office of Personnel Management’s Christine Griffin told the Post that over time, “we’re talking about big dough.”
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chairwoman
Jacqueline Berrien said, “What may start off as a relatively minor pay gap for women just entering the workforce can grow over the course of a woman’s work history, especially when it is accompanied by other forms of compensation discrimination, such as in payment of bonuses or contributions to retirement accounts,” the Post reported.
The government’s job and pay classification system, known as the General Schedule, gets much of the credit for keeping down gender-based pay disputes, according to the Post.
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