By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services/Arizona Daily Sun
A new report from the federal government shows that women in Arizona are much more likely to be paid on par with men than in most other states.
New figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that in 2011, the most recent data available, women in Arizona, on average, earned 88.5 percent as much as men. That is not only higher than the national figure of 82.2 percent but good enough to be the second highest ratio in the country, behind only California.
But a closer examination of the numbers shows that may not be an indication that Arizona employers are bigger boosters of eliminating the gender gap on wages. Instead it may simply be that men generally are paid less in Arizona than in other states.
The most recent figures bear that out.
