Today is national Equal Pay Day, and female professors at UNM are still paid less than their male counterparts.
According to a University-wide study accepted for publication on Sunday, female professors at UNM earn 3 percent less than male professors, even after controlling productivity variables such as maternity leave, education and discipline.
The study, titled "Faculty Compensation at UNM: Is the Reward System Equitable?" was funded by the Provost's Office. The first edition, in 2007, found that female professors made 86.5 cents on every dollar earned by their male peers.
According to a 2008 study published by the Southwest Women's Law Center, women in Bernalillo County make 81 cents on every dollar that men make. In New Mexico as a whole, women make 78 cents for every dollar men make.
Melissa Binder, an associate economics professor and primary author of the study, said any pay discrepancy is cause for concern.
"The standard interpretation for these kinds of analyses is that, when you control for everything you can think of . there shouldn't be any difference between groups," Binder said. "The fact that you have as much as a 3 percent difference between men and women suggests that there is discrimination."
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Binder said discrimination at UNM occurs at the departmental level, because department heads recommend merit-based raises to the dean. She also said the study found Arts and Sciences departments that were more than two-thirds men discriminate against women.
In departments with more than one-third women, females made $1.01 for every dollar men made; however, departments made up of less than one-third female professors paid them nearly 10 percent less than male professors.
"It really looks to us like the discrimination arises at the department level," Binder said. "Departments that don't hire many women - they're kind of in this situation where the women aren't participating in the department and making the salary decisions."
Summer Little, program manager for the Women's Resource Center, said the evidence of discrimination against women at UNM shows the continued importance of addressing women's rights issues.
"These numbers are significant because all other factors were controlled for, indicating discrimination," she said. "This means that we, as a community, still have a serious issue to address. The impact of pay inequality is felt on many levels, from the individual woman to the larger community. A woman who is paid less than her male colleague has less to support her family, less food, health care and other necessities."
Binder said the researchers did not know the individual departments with gender pay inequities, but the study distinguished between fields.
Humanities and social sciences, such as English and philosophy, are both more than 45 percent women, and natural sciences, such as biology and mathematics, have less than 20 percent, according to the study.
Because individuals with degrees in natural sciences typically make more than those with social science or humanities degrees, Binder said there are programs in place at UNM to increase the number of women in natural sciences.
Biology professor Leslie McFadden is the co-primary investigator for ADVANCE, a National Science Foundation grant that aims to integrate more women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
"ADVANCE is a program that the intent of which is to identify the reasons for the under-representation of females in the STEM disciplines," he said. "Some feel that the representation has increased significantly, although it's still not on par with the number of women getting Ph.D.s compared to men."
