Unfair pay found

If it is not hard enough for today's woman to land a Fortune 500 company job, a recently released study revealed that top female executives among these companies are earning 68 cents to the dollar of their male counterparts.

Catalyst, a women's research group that initiated the study, found the median income of women studied - $518,596 - contrasted with the amount men earn - $765,000.

It is worse when compared to the gap of the total U.S. workforce. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the third quarter of 1998, women earned 76.7 cents to every man's dollar.

"This is a national problem that cuts across the whole economy," said Sheila Wellington, president of Catalyst. "Corporations are no worse than every part of the American economy."

When women are designated the titles chief executive officer, chief operating officer and senior vice president, the work load does not come light and the road to the top was likely not an easy one. Paying less for equal work segregates our society and promotes an unjust division.

There seems to be no movement to remedy this immense income gap. We hope it prompts more women to leave their posts and start their own businesses. Then they can divide the pay lines as they choose and overcompensate themselves for past losses.