Women in low-wage jobs in U.S. losing billions yearly: CNBC

NEW YORK, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Women in low-paying U.S. industries, especially Black and Hispanic females, are losing billions of U.S. dollars each year, as gender pay gap persists in the country, CNBC has reported.

Overrepresentation of women in low-paying jobs is a major driver of the wage gap, said a report published Tuesday on the U.S. business news channel, which cited a new analysis by the Labor Department noting eight of the occupations with the lowest pay in the country are predominately held by women.

Economists call this dynamic "occupational segregation," to which Black and Hispanic women are particularly susceptible. The Labor Department estimated that differences in job concentration cost Black women 39.3 billion dollars in potential wages in 2019, while the cost for Hispanic women was even greater, at 46.7 billion dollars.