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Male-Female Wage Gap in Cowboy Country
by Howard Berkes ~ NPR
Howard Berkes, NPR
Windmills and barbed wire -- a sign outside the old King County Courthouse sums up the character of the land.
February 8, 2005 - In the United States, men generally earn more money than
women -- about 25 percent more, on average. But that's not the case everywhere.
In 15 counties scattered across America, women working full time, on average,
take home bigger paychecks than men.
All of those counties are rural, and most are in the Western United States,
including King County, Texas, where this unconventional wage gap is widest.
The average female worker in King County makes 30 percent more than her male
counterpart -- that equals about $9,000 a year.
NPR's Howard Berkes recently visited King County to meet some of the working
men and women there, and examine the reasons behind the gap.
King County is true cowboy country. In fact, its rolling prairies and rugged
cowpokes are featured in Marlboro cigarette ads running overseas. The county
stretches over 900 square miles of range land and oil fields in northwestern
Texas. There are less than 400 human residents, about 1,000 horses and about
10,000 cows. No stoplights, no supermarkets, no restaurants, no local
newspapers, no incorporated towns.
And that's part of the reason for the wage gap -- much of the work here is
traditionally defined as "men's work." Hard, dirty, often dangerous work,
punching cattle or tending oil rigs. Men wear spurs, and use them.
Women, on the other hand, outnumber the men at the local courthouse, and there
are more female teachers in the schools. Those jobs generally pay better than
work as a ranch hand, and teachers get many benefits -- free housing, a salary
boost -- for working in such a remote location.
But men and women say the dollar amounts don't tell the full story. Some ranch
hands, for example, also get free housing, plus health insurance, a pickup
truck and gas, and other benefits. That, and a full year's supply of beef.
And regardless of the wage gap, the traditional male-female roles remain much
the same as anywhere else. The biggest ranch in the county may be owned by a
woman in Fort Worth, but it's managed by men. Men are the decision-makers at
the courthouse, and both the principal and superintendent at the school are
men.
All this talk of male-female pay gaps doesn't phase Linda Lewis, who makes a
good living as the County Clerk, and her husband Ron Lewis, a veteran cowboy.
"It doesn't concern us," says Ron Lewis. "God's been good to us. He's provided
for us really well, we've raised our family here. It's just a blessing."
"It's not mine and yours -- it's ours. We put it together," adds Linda
Lewis. "So it's no big deal."