The wage gap between the sexes, still a hot topic in much of the United States, seems to have lost its steam with NIU students.

In an informal survey of 50 random students, 43 of them did not know what the wage gap is, and out of the seven who did know, only five said it still is a modern and important issue.

“I haven’t heard about the wage gap from students in a long time. Twenty years ago it was a problem, but then women made a little more because companies were trying to make up for it,” said Jean Callary, assistant director for the Career Planning and Placement Center. “But, I won’t say that [women being paid less] doesn’t still happen.”

The wage gap is the difference between the average wage of male and female workers who work year-round and full-time.

Even though the gap may get little attention on campus, it does still exist.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Congressional Research Service, a branch of the Library of Congress that provides reports to the House and Senate, women earn from 72 to 77 cents for every dollar that men make.

There are many theories that attempt to explain this wage gap.

According to the National Center of Policy Analysis, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy researching organization, some people believe there is a wage gap because they say women are more likely to leave their careers to raise children or care for sick relatives, and do not spend as much time on the job or get as much experience as men do.

Others believe there is a wage gap because they say many women work part-time for job flexibility or because they do not have a lot of education.

These theories may explain some of the wage gap, but they do not account for all of it.

A 12 percent difference in pay still exists when possible differences in experience and education are taken into account, according to a report by the Council of Economic Advisers on the White House Web site.

Lynn Kamenitsa, associate professor of political science and women’s studies, said discrimination against women is not totally to blame for this 12 percent.

“Discrimination does exist in certain circumstances, but it does not explain much of the wage gap,” she said.

Kamenitsa said that part of the wage gap is caused by horizontal segregation, the phenomenon that women tend to be concentrated in lower-paying jobs, such as those involving clerical, secretarial and service work.

“Why many women choose lower-paying jobs is complicated,” Kamenitsa said. “Some are place-bound because of their spouse’s employment; some have no educational opportunities. Also, many women are raising kids alone and take what they can get.”

Kamenitsa said that tracking, a more subtle phenomenon, also contributes to the gap.

“Women are told by society to do lower-paying jobs,” she said. “They are often steered into lower-paying jobs by their parents or their spouses.”

The government recognized the wage gap as a problem in 1963 and responded with the Equal Pay Act, which prohibits unequal pay for equal work by the genders. Then in 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act was added to wage gap legislation. Title VII prohibits wage discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion and national origin.

After the passage of these two laws, the wage gap decreased substantially, according to www.infoplease.com, an online learning and information resource center that is part of the Family Education Network.

However, for the last decade and a half, the gap has remained relatively the same, Kamenitsa said.

“Encouraging women to pursue a variety of occupations, having better social services to enable women, especially single parents, to get better education and training, and valuing predominately female jobs and paying those workers accordingly would help [to continue to close the gap],” she said.

Some states now have a system called comparable worth to evaluate each job on a scale to determine how essential the job is and how much responsibility it includes, Kamenitsa said. If predominately female jobs and predominately male jobs fall into the same category, then the states recognize that the pay for those jobs is to be similar, and they react accordingly.

The future of the wage gap is uncertain, but a recent report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) looks promising.

This 2001 to 2002 salary survey, provided with permission by the NIU’s Career Planning and Placement Center, shows that average, entry-level salary offers to both men and women bachelor’s degree candidates in September 2002 were fairly equal in many fields.

However, in other professions women were actually offered a higher starting salary than their male counterparts were.

Callary said students need to research their prospective careers so that they know what kinds of salaries are fair.

“Do your homework,” she said. “Understand what the job entails and what the salary should be; know what you’re worth.”