Over the last decade, a wider gap has opened between the pay for women and minorities in

Over the last decade, a wider gap has opened between the pay for women and minorities in state government and what a white male typically makes:

“The Office of the Governor hires the most qualified individuals, and employee salaries are commensurate with experience and job responsibilities,” Wittman wrote in an email. “To suggest otherwise would be irresponsible.”

The News provided the data to Gov. Greg Abbott’s office. Spokesman John Wittman, given more than a week to review the findings, declined to answer questions or directly address the analysis’ conclusions.

“I don’t see a whole lot of white people in my position where I am. I don’t really know where the white people are, so it’s totally possible that they’re above me,” one Hispanic woman who works for the state said.

Several state workers said they’ve noticed that in their offices, most of their fellow low-paid colleagues are women of color.

The News interviewed a half-dozen state workers about their pay. Most spoke only on condition of anonymity because they fear they could be fired for talking to a reporter.

But after a decade of belt-tightening and privatization by conservative lawmakers, fair pay in government work, which many economists say is a bedrock of a healthy middle class, is eroding.

The gap is smaller than those seen in the private sector. But the fact that it’s widening is significant, Hutchinson said, because for decades, government jobs were considered “a respite” from the larger pay inequities in the business world.

Top agency jobs that come with fewer restrictions on pay raises and higher overall salaries are more likely to be filled by men and especially white men. Those front-line jobs are tightly controlled by lawmakers who approve pay raises and agency directors who pick who gets promoted. But lawmakers have never examined the fairness of the system they’ve designed. To do so, The News analyzed more than 253,000 full-time state employees’ salaries. The data, maintained by the comptroller’s office, is public information under state law.

The forces that drive pay inequity are complex, but among the likely reasons for Texas’ gaps are slow growth in state workers’ pay overall, the tendency of white men to get top-paying jobs and the state’s inattention to the issue.

“Women and folks of color, and particularly women of color, are the people who do much of the front-lines work,” Hutchinson said, referring to the state jobs such as social workers, corrections officers and clerical staff. “The folks on the front lines are the ones that have not seen the pay raises over the years.”

“I’m not surprised by that,” said Seth Hutchinson, vice president of the Texas State Employees Union, which represents more than 12,000 Texas workers.

Black and Hispanic workers are also falling further behind whites, the data show. For women of color, the gap is largest of all: In 2006, black and Hispanic women earned 86 and 87 cents on the white man’s dollar, respectively. Black women have lost 2 cents, while Hispanic women lost 5 cents.

A first-of-its-kind data analysis conducted by The Dallas Morning News shows that, compared with men, women earn about 2 cents less on the dollar today than they did in 2006, down from 94 cents to 92 cents.

Women and minorities working for the state make less money than white men in similar jobs  and for a decade, the gap has been getting worse.

“Some of the individuals listed may manage over 20 full-time employees while others manage fewer,” Leggett said.

Kimberly Leggett, the water board’s spokeswoman, said that different directors may deserve different pay based on their seniority, expertise or specific duties.

Six men in this role have an average salary of $114,667, compared with four women whose average salary is about $94,280. The five highest paid are all men, four of them white.

A “Director III” job with the board exhibits the largest gender pay gap – 22 percent – of any non-university state agency, The News found.

For instance, the data show a clear outlier in pay inequality at the Texas Water Development Board, which oversees and assists local governments with water infrastructure plans.

Job types, special skills, a person’s experience, longevity and education – all are factors that complicate how any employer might evaluate and address pay equity.

Amanatullah said “implicit bias” is probably contributing to Texas’ pay gaps. The biggest challenge facing women and people of color in the workplace is that most companies and agencies don’t have “very objective metrics for how people rise in the ranks,” she added.

“People of color and women tend to kind of plateau rather than be promoted or advancing,” Amanatullah said. “A big part of that phenomenon is that when it comes to evaluating the competition or promotability of an individual, we evaluate white men based on their potential, and we evaluate everyone else based on their achievements.”

It sounds good, but that standard does little to address bias in who decides whose work is more valuable or who should get a raise, says Emily Amanatullah, a research fellow at Georgetown University’s Women’s Leadership Institute.

Under the Texas Equal Pay Act, passed in 1993, women employed by the state must be paid the same as men performing the “same kind, grade, and quantity of service.”

Here’s a sampling of how state salaries stack up by race and gender:

“In those areas where there is more leeway, and there are more performance pay raises, the gap grows,” Hegewisch said.

In contrast, there are seven men and seven women who hold the job of “Systems Analyst VI” at the Office of Attorney General, earning on average $98,705 and $84,831 respectively.

The lack of a wage gap “doesn’t make it a good occupation for women,” Hegewisch said. “That just makes it a low-paying occupation.”

A “Cook II” with the Texas Department of State Health Services could be called one of the most equitable positions in state government. Ten men earn on average $22,772; 32 women earn on average $22,664.

In Texas government, as in the rest of the country, the wage gap is wider for highest-paid workers, and it’s narrower for low-wage workers.

The News found that men are twice as likely as women to hold state jobs paying six figures or more.

“If you have a lot of white men in the highest-paid jobs in the public sector and you have a lot of women of color being care workers, teachers assistants, those types of jobs, you will get a wage gap,” Hegewisch said.

Among the many complications and nuances that plague researchers who study pay equity is that studies indicate women tend to fill lower-paying jobs for a variety of reasons.

After reviewing The News’ findings, Hegewisch called the widening pay gap “a Texas peculiarity” because, nationally, the gender pay gap is narrowing — if only at a snail’s pace.

“Occupation and sector together account for more than half of the gender wage gap,” said Ariane Hegewisch, the lead employment and earnings researcher for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a Washington nonprofit that advocates for higher pay for women.

But those numbers don’t tell the whole story.

In November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated women working full-time earn about 83 cents for every dollar men earned, or a 17 percent pay gap compared with Texas government’s overall 8 percent pay gap.

The Texas employee wage gap is relatively narrow compared with national figures, which account for both private and public sector jobs.

‘Never comes up’

Some states have made large-scale efforts to address pay inequities. California last year passed one of the toughest equal-pay laws in the country, prohibiting private businesses from paying women less than men for “substantially similar work.”

Since 1980, California has required its Department of Human Resources to study and address the state’s gender wage gap.With more than 170 agencies, boards and schools, that would be a Herculean task for Texas.

While some Texas institutions, such as the University of Texas System, have made pledges to address pay inequities, no comprehensive analysis has been made to study gender or race pay disparities statewide.

The last legislative effort to address fair pay came in 2013, when Rep. Senfronia Thompson and Sen. Wendy Davis, both Democrats, barely gathered enough votes to pass a bill that would extend the window of time in which workers can sue employers they accuse of discrimination.

Former Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the bill, calling debate surrounding the measure “nonsense” and saying its provisions were already covered by the landmark federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

Neither Thompson nor Davis, who later ran for governor, have hopes the conservative Legislature would consider the issue.

“There’s no way it would make it through this Texas Senate,“ Davis said. “Not in a million years.”

In fact, the Legislature is among the state workplaces that exhibit the largest gender pay gap. The second-largest male-female pay gap in the state was found in the position of “administrator” for senators. Pay for the 45 men who hold that job is about 21 percent higher than it is for 74 women,

“I’m disappointed to hear that even within our own state government we see the inequities there,” Davis said. “The easiest place for state government to address that is in their own house, right?”

When The News shared data showing that all women, and particularly women of color, earn less as a percent of men’s pay, Thompson said: “It shocks me. I’m not joking.”

Thompson, in the House for more than four decades, said she couldn’t recall a time when state officials looked at their own payrolls to examine fairness.

Racial disparity

Just as men are twice as likely as women to fill the most lucrative jobs, whites of both genders are nearly twice as likely as nonwhites to earn a six-figure salary.

Whites are four times more likely than blacks and 3.6 times more likely than Hispanics to earn six-figure salaries, the data analysis found.

“What we’re finding is that blacks are crowded into the low-wage jobs and whites are crowded into the high-wage jobs,” said Darrick Hamilton, a stratification economist and assistant professor at the New School in New York.

Hamilton said the budget squeeze in Texas, and relatively stagnant pay for most state workers, precipitated a phenomenon familiar to economists who study racial inequality.

“The share of public-sector jobs is shrinking,” Hamilton said. “With scarcity you can expect discrimination and inequality to become more intense.”

The News found that Hispanic and black workers made significantly slower gains than white workers:

● Hispanics, about 21 percent of the state workforce, saw a 10-year median salary jump of 31 percent for women and less than about 27 percent for men. ● Black workers, about 27 percent of the state workforce, saw gains of 27 percent for men and 31 percent for women. ● White men and women enjoyed median salary gains of 35 percent and 32 percent.

“Things are very difficult,” said a Dallas-area black woman who has worked at a large state agency for two decades. “The only way I’m making it is because I do have a husband. If I didn’t, I would have to have a second job also. But even with my job, my husband still has to carry me throughout the month.”

There is one notable exception to the trend: a broad demographic category that includes many workers of Indian and Chinese descent working in technology. Asians working for Texas have made substantial gains in the last decade. That trend aligns with national statistics published by the U.S. Bureau for Labor Statistics in November.

Asian workers of both genders today earn about $1.13 for every dollar a white man earns.

“It is a sector where we would expect greater equity, greater fairness, especially relative to the private sector,” Hamilton said. “But yet you’re not observing that.”

Arguments that black or Hispanic workers are either less qualified or are in low supply for higher-paying jobs don’t survive academic scrutiny, he said.

“It’s not as if black people are acquiring relatively less education than they were before,” Hamilton said. “It’s not as though women are acquiring relatively less education than before.” ♦

RELATEDWhile comptroller eyes ‘mixed bench,’ Abbott’s office dismisses findings

Pay disparities among state employees can be especially pronounced when examining only agencies run by statewide elected officials, a Dallas Morning News analysis of state salary data found.

Median state employees salaries On average, minorities and women earn less than white men in top statewide elected officials' offices. Median salary in thousands Governor’s office Hispanic Men White Men White Women Asian Men Asian Women Hispanic Women American Indian Women Black Women Black Men $71.4 $69.9 $64.2 $56.3 $53.4 $52.5 $48.2 $46.8 $45.1 Attorney general's office White Men Asian Men Asian Women Black Men American Indian Men White Women American Indian Women Hispanic Men Black Women Hispanic Women $72.7 $60.4 $56.3 $51.8 $51.6 $48.4 $48 $45 $38.3 $36.3 Comptroller's office American Indian Men White Men American Indian Women Asian Men White Women Asian Women Hispanic Men Black Men Hispanic Women Black Women $95.8 $95 $87.6 $73.3 $71.8 $67.7 $61.7 $60.9 $54.9 $54.8 SOURCE: State salary data; Dallas Morning News research Troy Oxford/Staff

Median state employees salaries When comparing median share of earnings, minorities and women earn less than white men in top statewide elected officials' offices. Median salary in thousands Governor’s office Attorney general's office Comptroller's office Hispanic Men White Men White Women Asian Men Asian Women Hispanic Women American Indian Women Black Women Black Men White Men Asian Men Asian Women Black Men American Indian Men White Women American Indian Women Hispanic Men Black Women Hispanic Women American Indian Men White Men American Indian Women Asian Men White Women Asian Women Hispanic Men Black Men Hispanic Women Black Women $71.4 $72.7 $95.8 $69.9 $60.4 $95 $64.2 $56.3 $87.6 $51.8 $56.3 $73.3 $53.4 $51.6 $71.8 $52.5 $48.4 $67.7 $48.2 $48 $61.7 $45 $46.8 $60.9 $45.1 $38.3 $54.9 $36.3 $54.8 SOURCE: State salary data; Dallas Morning News research Troy Oxford/Staff

When factoring in all state agencies, black men earn about 88 cents for every dollar white men earn, but the gap is much wider in the governor’s office, the comptroller’s office and on the attorney general’s staff.

At those agencies, the figure for black men is 65 cents, 64 cents and 71 cents, compared with their white male counterparts.

The data show Hispanic and black women working for the attorney general have the lowest median share – 50 cents and 53 cents– of any demographic working for a statewide elected official.

At the comptroller’s office, the state’s massive financing and accounting agency, Hispanic and black women are faring slightly better: 58 cents on the dollar compared with white men.

Comptroller Glenn Hegar is the only one of those top elected officials who has said he’s interested in studying and addressing pay disparities in his shop. He’s doing that by encouraging women and minority employees to participate in leadership training so they might ascend to some of the higher-paying jobs in the agency.

“We want to incentivize people to move up and have a better mix of gender, race all the different kinds of metrics,” Hegar said. “I want to have a real mix and representation of what Texas is. It obviously takes a while to get there.”

Hegar said he’s not sure his office has a serious problem – he attributes much of the disparity to differences in workers experience or duties – but said he wants to look into it.

“It’s common sense, or otherwise in a few years, it’s going to be real bad, where we have division leaders retire, and we don’t have a mixed bench,” he said.

Although Hispanic and black women are at the bottom of the payroll statewide – 82 and 84 cents respectively – the data reveals a yet wider pay gap for women of color working for agencies that are typically top-loaded with high-paid directors hired by politicians.

The governor’s office declined to discuss The News’ findings.

Katherine Wise, a spokeswoman with the attorney general’s office, said that seven of the top 20 earners at the agency are women and three of the top five are women.

“The office of the attorney general is committed to attracting and retaining the most qualified individuals in each agency position based on the candidate’s capabilities, attributes and experience as related to the specified job requirements,” she said. ♦

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RELATEDFor state workers in Texas, wage gap widens over time

Nationally, the gender pay gap is narrowing — or so it seems.

Women just starting their careers are earning wages closer to their male counterparts today than in previous decades. But researchers say men can quickly surpass women in both pay and seniority, especially in the private sector.

The result: The pay gap widens over the course of a woman’s career, especially if she’s a minority.

It’s one of several wrinkles in the complicated task of quantifying and addressing pay inequities, an exercise that requires considerations for longevity, expertise and a diverse array of fields, to name a few.

But by tracking specific individuals and their pay from 10 years ago to today, The Dallas Morning News found women and minorities in state government are very much falling behind.

The News tracked nearly 24,000 individuals working for scores of Texas agencies.The analysis found that black and Hispanic women in this subset earned about 74 cents and 76 cents on the dollar compared to white men in 2006, but today they earn about 70 and 72 cents, respectively.

“That makes a lot of sense because the wage gap grows with age,” said Ariane Hegewisch of the Washington-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “And we know that people in the highest qualified jobs get bigger gains in the lower qualified jobs.”

Meanwhile, black and Hispanic men of this subset just about broke even, though they earned less compared with the entire state workforce. Black men today earn about 78 cents for every dollar a white man earns, down a penny from 2006, while Hispanic men remained at 73 cents.

Ten years ago, white women earned about 91 cents per dollar compared with white men. Today, that’s 87 cents.

Rakesh Kochhar, an associate director of research at the Pew Research Center in Washington, said one factor is that motherhood and family obligations can pull many women from the workforce. When they return, it can be difficult to catch up.

“The gender pay gap among those under 35, that pay gap is narrowing over time,” Kochhar said. “But if you look at those people over time, regardless of where they started out, they seem to follow the old patterns over again.”

What’s more, Pew researchers have noted a decline in the pace at which women are catching up to men nationally. Progress made in the 1980s and ‘90s “has slowed a little bit” since, Kochhar said. ♦

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