The news is both good and bad, but mostly bad. On average women in Iowa receive 78 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Ironically enough, this is an improvement — an increase from a similar report done in 1999, which found that women earned 73 cents on the dollar to their male counterparts.

The latest report was released today by Lt. Gov. Patty Judge.

“Though progress has been made, there is still much work to do,” Judge said. “Gov. Culver and I are committed to doing everything in our power to give Iowans the tools they need to reach their fullest potential. And for Iowa’s women, that begins with paying them an equal salary to men.”

In certain employment fields — architectural and engineering careers, business and financial operations, and computer and mathematical science careers — the report found little difference in salaries between women and men employees. In other professions, however, the gap was much more evident. Women make significantly less than men in education, health care, management and sales careers.

“While it is encouraging to see the wage gap has closed in a number of career field, Iowa must work to close the gap in remaining areas,” said Elisabeth Buck, director of Iowa Workforce Development. “[Our agency] will work diligently with others to ensure all Iowans have the opportunity to reach their potential and be compensated equitably.”

Judge, who served as Iowa’s first female Secretary of Agriculture, said there is work underway to address this issue.

“To solve this problem, we must start with educating our children,” she said. “By implementing a statewide model core curriculum, we will level the playing field for all Iowa students. We may not solve this problem overnight, but together, I know it can be done. The good news for women in Iowa is that there are great jobs coming to our state and employers looking for well-trained employees.”

The report was the third to look specifically at issues of gender wage equity over the past 20 years. The initial report, completed in 1993, showed that women were paid 68 cents for every dollar paid to men. The new report became a priority when the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women contacted Iowa Workforce Development and requested it be completed.

“We thought it was important to renew public discussion on this issue, and to get this information into women’s hands, especially when they are still young,” said Rachel Scott, division administrator of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women. “Women need to understand that, unfortunately, many traditional career choices will not offer them an equal shot at financial stability or success. We need to be looking at a wide variety of new career avenues.”

In addition to work-related questions, respondents were asked to report the highest level of education attained. A higher percentage of men reported having a high school diploma or GED (31.4 percent of men to 25.9 percent of women); however, women reported completing higher levels of education than their male counterparts. In every education category following high school completion except attainment of a postgraduate degree, women reported in higher percentages than men.

Further, wages are higher for men even when both the man and the woman have attained the same level of education. For example, of those respondents with an associate degree, men reported receiving a median hourly wage of $17 per hour while women reported receiving $13.60 per hour.

The study also showed that wage disparity differed based on the respondents’ geographic region of the state. The highest disparity rates were found in the following counties: Black Hawk, Butler, Bremer, Buchanan, Lucas, Monroe, Wapello, Jefferson, Keokuk, Mahaska, Wayne, Appanoose, Davis and Van Buren. The lowest disparity rates were found in the northeastern counties of Winneshiek, Allamakee, Fayette, Clayton, Delaware, Dubuque and Chickasaw.

The study was completed using 2007/2008 Laborshed data consisiting of responses from 5,669 employed respondents. Of the respondents, 59.6 percent were female, 40.3 percent were male and .1 percent refused to identify their gender. Statewide sampling was provided by the University of Northern Iowa’s Institute for Decision Making based on population per ZIP code.