|
 Fifty-one percent of respondents said the U.S. government should
be doing more to encourage equal pay, the online poll of 2,348
adults from Feb. 27 to March 3 showed.
Broken down by political party, 67 percent of Democrats and 36
percent of Republicans said the federal government should be playing
a more active role, according to the poll.
The broad interest in pay equality may indicate why Clinton, the
presumed Democratic presidential front-runner, has chosen to
highlight gender during recent appearances.
Clinton has championed the economic advancement of women as a former
secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady. If Clinton is
elected to the White House, she would be the first female U.S.
president.
In speeches to women's groups in Silicon Valley and Washington,
Clinton has argued for addressing pay disparity, bolstering family
leave policies and helping families afford childcare.
 "We're not just standing up for women, but for all people - for our
families, our communities, our country, and indeed, the kind of
world we want for our children," Clinton told a crowd of 1,600 at
the Tuesday night dinner for Emily's List, a political group that
works to elect Democratic women who support abortion access.
Women helped fuel the country's economic growth over the past 40
years, and without them, the average family would be earning $14,000
less and the gross domestic product would be $2 trillion smaller,
Clinton said.
Most of the speakers at Emily's List touched on similar economic
themes such as minimum wage and healthcare, filtered through the
lens of gender.
Democrats, including President Barack Obama, often cite the
statistic that women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.
The 77-cent figure comes from recent U.S. Census Bureau reports
based on the annual median salaries for men and women and is not
controlled for other factors.
Of 111 occupations for which the government received enough data to
determine 2010 pay disparities, women out-earned men in only four
categories - food preparation, bill and account collections, stock
clerks and order fillers, and counselors.
These figures were also based on median wages and were not adjusted
for variables such as education or career interruptions to care for
children and family.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that adults believe there are a
variety of factors that lead to discrepancies between the pay earned
by men and women.
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Fifty-one percent, including 42 percent of men and 60 percent of
women, said that employers perceive men and women differently.
Forty-two percent agreed that intentional or unintentional sexism
affects how employers pay women.
About 30 percent of all adults said that men and women make
different choices about balancing work and family that could account
for unequal pay.
Twenty-three percent of adults said it was "essential" that one
parent stay at home with children and not work and 52 percent said
that it was important but not essential.
Of those who said it was essential or important, 24 percent it
should be the mother who remains at home and 2 percent said it
should be the father. Seventy-three percent said it did not matter
which parent was the primary caregiver.
The poll revealed political differences about how to handle equal
pay. Eighty-two percent of Democrats and 62 percent of Republicans
thought employers should do more to ensure equal pay.
Among Republicans, who typically favor less government intervention,
30 percent said the federal government should do less, compared to
the 36 percent who thought it could play a more active role. Only 10
percent of Democrats believed the federal government should be doing
less.
The poll had a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2.3
percentage points.
(Reporting by Amanda Becker and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Caren
Bohan and Lisa Shumaker)
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