Hill's study also advises female job seekers to drive tougher bargains on pay and responsibilities, and urges employers to offer high-quality part-time jobs to accommodate working mothers.
The findings are consistent with analyses of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, said Jean Ross, executive director of California Budget Project, a Sacramento-based nonprofit research group.
In a study released in March, Ross found that the median hourly pay for California men with a bachelor's degree was $31.03 in 2006 while women with the same degree earned $24.75.
The pay gap is narrowest among workers without a high school degree; those women earn 84.1% of men's salaries. In that group, Ross said, women's earnings have risen while men's have declined slightly, reflecting the concentration of women in fast-growing sectors such as healthcare and financial services, and the continuing decline in manufacturing jobs long dominated by men.
Hill and her colleagues argue that tougher legislation is needed to erase the pay gap. The American Assn. of University Women is backing two bills before Congress that would require equal pay for comparable but not identical jobs, and eliminate provisions allowing some employers to discipline workers who discuss their wages with co-workers.
"Legislation has made a difference in the past," Hill said. It wasn't so long ago that law schools and medical schools could bar women from enrolling, she said, or fire women who became pregnant. "That's no longer true."
molly.selvin@latimes.com
