Women’s Place in the National Park Service: Earning Equal Pay

By Dr. Amber Raile

You probably know that a gender pay gap averaging around $0.18 exists in the US; women earn an average $0.82 for every $1.00 earned by men due to multiple, complex, interrelated factors. You might not know that the US federal government boasts a noticeably lower gender pay gap ($0.07) because the government follows several best practices that reduce pay inequity based on gender, including standardized pay schedules. Standardized pay schedules attach pay to specific jobs regardless of who fills those positions and limit the salary range for particular positions, which reduces the potential discrepancy in pay for those in the same position. Though this does reduce pay gaps, pay schedules risk institutionalizing gender pay gaps because they seem like neutral structures, which can prevent further scrutiny of how individual characteristics – like gender – might continue to affect pay. Comprehensive evaluations of pay are a best practice to identify potential biases institutionalized in standardized pay schedules.

As a federal agency, the National Park Service (NPS) is ahead of many organizations working to address gender pay inequity. The NPS is made up of more than 17,000 employees who manage 423 sites across the United States and its territories. Women make up 38% of the NPS workforce and have been part of the NPS since its inception. However, some have described the culture of the NPS as masculine, typified by the stereotypical image of the manly, rugged park ranger as the “ideal” NPS worker. Does this mean we see a gender pay gap at the NPS despite the use of standardized pay schedules? I worked with the NPS to look into this question.

Of course, we would expect education, time in position, grade/level and step in the standardized pay schedule to be associated with pay. However, being male or female or one’s ethnicity should not be associated with pay. I found that, in general, the NPS pay structure minimizes differences in pay due to gender. In organizations like the NPS with standardized pay schedules, bias can lead to gender pay gap showing up in other ways. In the NPS, for example, women are overrepresented in administrative roles (72%), which are limited to lower pay grades/levels, and underrepresented in roles like park rangers (66% male), law enforcement (88% male), and maintenance skilled labor roles, which offer higher pay grades/levels. The need to move through the standardized pay schedule in a sequence without “skipping” stages also prevents women who come in through administrative roles the opportunity to move into management roles because the transitions aren’t available. The causes of the continued gender pay gap in the NPS are complex, but continuing to look for gaps and consider their causes and how to address them are the only ways to close pay gaps related to gender completely. Regular pay audits are a best practice that the federal government is legally bound to practice and one that other organizations should adopt.

read the article

Article Details
Women’s Place in the National Park Service: Earning Equal Pay
Amber N. W. Raile
First published May 9, 2023 Research article
DOI: 10.1177/00910260231171396
Public Personnel Management

About the Author

Featured

Dr. Amber Raile is an Associate Professor of Management in the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Montana State University. She develops and applies cross-disciplinary approaches to addressing large-scale problems. Her recent scholarship cultivates applied solutions around the complex social issues related to gender inequity across local, state, national, and international communities. This research was conducted through a partnership with the NPS Women’s Employee Resource Group and Office of Equal Opportunity and supported by a grant from the National Park Foundation in honor of the centennial celebration of the 19th amendment to explore the roles of women in the NPS.