Gender pay gap remains stubbornly high 60 years after landmark legislation

The Equal Pay Act was signed into law 60 years ago. The federal legislation mandated that employers pay women the same as men, but today, women still only earn about 82% as much as men.

Washington state has one of the highest gender pay gaps in the country; the median earnings for a man working full-time is $14,600 higher than for women.

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"I saw the statistic that Washington state has one of the biggest gender pay gaps in the country and I thought that was kind of weird," said KUOW labor and economy reporter Monica Nickelsburg. "It sparked my curiosity because we see ourselves as this pretty progressive place."

Nickelsburg said that some of the reasons include the difference in the types of industries in Washington. Women make up about 30% of tech workers.

"And those numbers go down for leadership roles, which tend to pay more than something like health care," Nickelsburg said. "The top job for women in Washington state is registered nurse. The median salary for them is about $77,000. Male software engineers earn roughly double that."

So it's not quite as simple as men and women being paid dramatically differently in equal roles. It's a lot more of these systemic things that happen that influence the direction women go in, and the choices that they make in their careers.

Nickelsburg looked into the gender pay gap in a recent four part series, you can hear the first part of that series here.

Listen to the full segment above.