Business/Economy

Alaska has one of nation's widest wage gaps between men and women

Women in Alaska earn about 76 percent of what men here earn, placing the state among the worst when it comes to the gender wage gap, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 2015, women in Alaska had median weekly earnings of $787, compared to $1,034 for their "male counterparts," the bureau said in a report released this month. Those numbers are for full-time wage and salary workers.

The state tied with Louisiana for the sixth-worst for women's earnings as a percentage of men's (that list includes the District of Columbia).

Nationally, women earned about 81 percent of what men earned, or a median $726 per week for women compared to $895 per week for men.

One reason behind the wider rift in Alaska, experts say, is that many of the higher-paying jobs in the state are in the oil and gas industry, which is overwhelmingly male-dominated.

Less than 1 percent of women in Alaska worked in the construction and extraction industries in 2014, BLS data show, compared to 11.2 percent of men.

"Almost certainly the biggest factor — we have a higher percentage of oil and gas employment than other states do, and then that industry is the highest-paid in Alaska, and … the percentages are high for males," said Dan Robinson, chief of research and analysis at the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

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A state labor department report from last year that examined gender and nontraditional work found that one of the main reasons for the earnings gap in Alaska is that "traditionally male-dominated occupations are common and high-paying, and female-dominated occupations tend to pay considerably less."

Male-dominated jobs are more common in Alaska "because of the outsize role of extractive industries" here, the labor department said. The construction and extraction, installation and repair, and transportation industries in Alaska had the highest concentrations of men.

Even in female-dominated occupations, men still earned more than women, the state report found.

In 2014 in Alaska, 21.7 percent of women worked in administrative and office support jobs, compared to 6.4 percent of men, according to BLS numbers. More women also worked in service jobs than men.

Nationally, a number of factors contribute to the wage gap.

"It's hard to say with any confidence that the reason for the gender gap is (any one factor), simply," Robinson said. "It's complicated."

Most of the wage gap, the Pew Research Center said in a 2013 article, can be explained by measurable factors like education, occupational segregation and number of hours worked.

"But there are other forces at work that are difficult to quantify: gender stereotypes, discrimination, professional networks that are more robust for men than for women, and hesitancy on the part of women to aggressively negotiate for raises and promotions," Pew said. "Experts suggest that these factors may account for anywhere from 20 percent to 40 percent of the earnings gap."

Kara Moriarty, president of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association trade group, said she's seen some companies in the industry launch initiatives specifically to employ more women, though that's not AOGA's focus.

"We don't focus on gender gaps or trying to recruit women into the workforce," she said. "We want a strong industry so that anyone can get a job."

She also said that the life of a Prudhoe Bay oil worker might not appeal to women as much as men.

"(It's) two weeks on, two weeks off," she said. "If you're a mom and have a family, that's a big sacrifice. I mean, women do it … As a woman, I wouldn't."

One 2015 Pew survey concluded that "women were more likely to say they had taken career interruptions to care for their family," and those interruptions "can have an impact on long-term earnings."

At Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., about 30 percent of employees are women, said corporate communications director Michelle Egan. About 43 percent of the company's professional workforce — jobs like engineers and accountants — are women. In technician jobs, which include pipeline work, the figure is significantly lower.

The company doesn't have initiatives around, say, hiring more women specifically, Egan said, but instead has systems to "assure that there is equity."

"We are looking for the very best people in a pretty competitive market," she said. "Trying to make sure that regardless of what your gender is — and the same for ethnicity — you have access to the same fair salary, the same fair assessment of your performance, the same fair opportunities for promotion."

Alyeska does that by looking at how women's performance ratings and salaries compare to those of others, she said.

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"They routinely look for those things to look for fairness," Egan said.

At ConocoPhillips Alaska, women and men in similar jobs make the same amount of money, spokeswoman Natalie Lowman said in an email. She also said the company is involved with initiatives that reach out to women engineers, and advertises positions on "diversity-related job posting boards."

The wage gap is even wider for some non-white women in the U.S. In 2015, black and Hispanic women earned less than white women, the BLS report found. Asian women earned more than white women but still less than white men.

Wyoming had the largest pay gap in 2015, with women making 69 percent of what men made on a weekly basis, the BLS report said. Hawaii had the smallest gap, where the figure was about 88 percent. Women made the least money in Mississippi, where their median weekly earnings were $591. In Massachusetts, the highest, women earned $907 per week.

Annie Zak

Annie Zak was a business reporter for the ADN between 2015 and 2019.

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