Part 1 of this series examined the county’s pay system and revealed that a significant gender gap in pay can be found in payroll files from 2014 through 2018. Part 2 used data from 2017 to examine managerial status and seniority as possible causes for the gap.
Now let’s look at full- and part-time status, overtime and some of the county’s largest departments.
Full vs. Part-Time Status
The table below shows the gender distributions of full- and part-time employees of county department and their gender pay differentials.
Women comprise 37 percent of full-time county employees, who receive average gross pay of $84,230. In contrast, women comprise 81 percent of part-time county employees, who receive average gross pay of $32,693. This is a major contributor to the overall gender pay gap.
Among both full-time and part-time employees, women earn higher annual salaries but lower gross pay than men. One reason for that difference is overtime.
Overtime
The table below shows the gender distribution of jobs paying overtime as well as the average levels of overtime paid to female and male county employees.
Women occupy 29 percent of the positions earning overtime and 64 percent of the positions not earning overtime. They are far less likely to earn overtime than men. In positions that did pay overtime, women earned an average $5,359 in overtime compared to an average $12,420 paid to men. In positions that did not pay overtime, women earned an average 84 percent of the annual salary earned by men and 86 percent of the gross pay earned by men.
County Departments
The table below shows gender distribution of employees, average gross pay received, average overtime pay and percentage part-time status for the county government’s 10 largest departments, which cumulatively employed 87 percent of the county’s workforce in 2017.
Women comprise majorities of employees in two of the ten largest departments: health and human services (84 percent) and libraries (78 percent). Both of those departments pay less in gross pay than the county average, with libraries ($52,254) being by far the lowest paid department in the top 10. Health and human services and libraries have significant concentrations of part-time employees, who are female-dominated, with nearly half of library employees classified as part-time.
Additionally, the female share of fire and rescue services, which earns the most overtime, is just 8 percent – the lowest female percentage in the 10 largest departments.
In terms of gross pay received, the large department with the biggest gender pay gap is the police department.
Female police department employees earn an average 70 percent of the gross pay received by men. They comprise 33 percent of the police department’s full-time employees and 87 percent of its lower-paid part-time employees. Police department pay data for 2017 is shown below.
This series has examined one year of payroll data in detail, but it has raised more questions than answers.
The county government pays women less than men, but is that due to discrimination, structural aspects of the labor market that have disparate impacts on women, or both? Women earn less overtime than men, but are they less likely to apply for the public safety positions (like fire fighters) that pay the most overtime? Women are more likely to work part time than men, but is that due to family responsibilities at home? Why does the pay gap increase with seniority? Is there anything the county can do to mitigate these factors?
What’s clear is that the county government’s pay gap, in which female employees earn 83 percent of the gross pay received by men, is not much better than the 82 percent female pay differential found throughout the county overall by the Commission for Women. If the county would like to be a leader in gender equity, further attention is required by the county executive and the County Council.
Adam Pagnucco is a writer, researcher and consultant who is a former chief of staff at the County Council. He has worked in the labor movement and has had clients in labor, business and politics.
