During the previous year, men’s wages weren’t able to keep up with inflation, which was relatively low at 2 percent, according to the New York Times. The newspaper reports that the median full-time male worker earned a 1.3-percent raise in weekly pay last year. The median women’s pay rose 5-percent.

“The wage trends for men are unequivocally bad,” says Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute, a research group in Washington. “The fact that we’re deep into a jobless recovery and women’s wages are still growing is good news.”

The newspaper notes that millions of women are employed in two sectors that added workers last year – health care and government. More women also joined labor unions, which could have contributed to their rise in wages, economists tell the Times.

Meanwhile, a professional women’s group is calling on companies to develop compensation audits to ensure their firms pay women equitably, CBS MarketWatch reports. Business and Professional Women/USA says addressing disparity in wages is a top priority for women in the workplace, according to MarketWatch.

Links

• New York Times article (registration required)
• CBS MarketWatch article (registration required)