The DC-based Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) just released a new analysis of the gender pay gap in the US, and guess what, ladies? Surprise! We're still fucked. Here's a few of their findings:

We're still earning less money overall. "Women earn less than men in almost all of the 112 occupations for which the US Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes weekly full-time earnings data for both women and men," reads the IWPR's press release for the study. In 101 of those occupations, women make "substantially" less than men; in 17 of them, women make at least 25 cents per dollar less than men in the same field. Based on median weekly earnings for full-time workers in 2013, the gender wage ratio was 82 percent, in favor of men.

Job categories dominated by men still pay better. "Male-dominated occupations tend to pay more than female-dominated occupations at similar skill levels, particularly in jobs that require higher education levels," the report says. Sorry about all that expensive education you got—and oh god, more on that in a minute.

A lot of jobs in those women-dominated fields pay very little. "Twelve of the 20 most common occupations for women," says the IWPR, "compared with eight of the 20 most common occupations for men, have median weekly earnings that will leave a household of four at or near poverty."

You can download a PDF of the IWPR analysis right over here. As they point out, since professions dominated by women tend to pay less, addressing that gender segregation in job categories is an important step toward tackling the pay gap.

And this is true at the City of Seattle, too.

According to a recently released report on the city government's pay gap, it's clear that at the city, "predominantly female jobs and/or jobs held predominantly by people of color are compensated at lower rates than predominantly male or predominantly white jobs."

From that report:

Out of 760 job titles with more than one employee, only 28% employ both men and women. The pay levels of these job titles seem to be generally defined by the majority gender in the job category. Women and men working in predominantly male jobs earn more than both women and men working in predominantly female jobs. In other words, the more women in a job category, the lower the earnings are for all workers within that job title. In most job titles, men earn more than women, with the exception of job titles that are 80% or more female. These statistics demonstrate multiple inequities. First, they suggest that jobs predominantly performed by women at the City are undervalued. Second, they indicate systemic issues within City employment that keep women and people of color in lower paying positions. They also point to a lack of upward mobility for women.

Hear that? The more women there are in the job, the less everyone in the job gets paid.

To address the pay gap, the city needs to address job segregation. And the report recommends steps like a deeper pay analysis—why do those female-dominated jobs pay less, and is it justified?—as well as expanding recruiting and making sure that the city's employment practices don't discourage certain groups of people from working there, e.g., family-friendly policies like parental leave and flex time so people don't leave their jobs to have kids.

And oh, yeah, one more thing, while we're on this depressing train.

About those "higher education levels" that the IWPR said don't seem to address the wage gap: NPR had a story out yesterday about how, because of the wage gap, student debt actually burdens women more:

A study by the American Association of University Women found that one year after college, nearly half of women working full time, and 39 percent of men, were devoting more than 8 percent of their income toward their debt. That may seem small, but when you are fresh out of college, the combination of living expenses, credit card bills or debt, a 401(k) and a little left over for savings—if you can hack it—adds up.

It does so more quickly for women. College-educated women made 82 percent of men's salaries one year after graduating in 2009, according to the AAUW study.

"For many young women, the challenge of paying back student loans is their first encounter with the pay gap," the study says.

Woohoo!