Income Gap Remains

New data show the salary gap between men and women is no better the higher up you travel on the totem pole. Female CEOs, lawyers and doctors earn a little more than $100k a year — 25% less than their male counterparts, according to a new report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. In all types of work, women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.

The gap gets even wider when you factor race into the equation. Not only to women make less than men, minority women make the least of every category.

For example, in 2004 the median income of Full-Time-Year-Round male workers was $40,798, compared to $31,223 for FTYR female workers.

Women have made many advances toward economic equality, but gaps in income between men and women persist and only multiply over time, as the following numbers from Jessica Arons’ Center for American Progress Action Fund report, “Lifetime Losses: The Career Wage Gap” show.

$434,000: The median amount that a full-time female worker loses in wages over a 40-year period as a direct result of the gender pay gap, also known as the “career wage gap.”

As women, on average live longer than men, this is money which should be going to into a retirement account, but that women will never see.

However, with minority women catching up on college degrees and opening businesses at a rate never before seen, the gap will hopefully start to close.

Changing Face of Hispanic Religion

In a huge cultural transformation that is changing the face of religion in the United States, millions of Hispanic Americans have left the Roman Catholic Church for evangelical Protestant denominations.

At around some 40 million, Hispanics in the United States now almost outnumber blacks, according to government figures released last month. Other studies claim that an estimated 9 million of them are evangelical. And of that number, close to 70 percent are Pentecostal.
Traditionally, the faith most associated with Hispanics is Catholic. This was true in 1970 when 90% of the Hispanics in the United States identified themselves as Catholic. However, a Barna Research survey of the religious faith of Hispanics in 2001 revealed that only 53% said they were Catholic.

At around some 40 million, Hispanics in the United States now almost outnumber blacks, according to government figures released last month. Other studies claim that an estimated 9 million of them are evangelical. And of that number, close to 70 percent are Pentecostal.
Traditionally, the faith most associated with Hispanics is Catholic. This was true in 1970 when 90% of the Hispanics in the United States identified themselves as Catholic. However, a Barna Research survey of the religious faith of Hispanics in 2001 revealed that only 53% said they were Catholic.

These statistics are especially poignant in Tucson, where Hispanics equal more than one-third of the population according to the 2000 Census.

Below is a map of the Protestant Christian Churches in Tucson:


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Dollar Store Mania

On the corner of Grant and Euclid in Tucson, Arizona, three dollar stores compete with each other and the grocery store for business. In Tucson alone, there are over 150 dollar stores and more companies are moving here monthly.

Discount businesses, i.e. Dollar Stores and thrift stores suffer during sound economic times, when consumers have more money in their pockets -- or have more credit available to them. As a result, dollar stores end up losing customers to larger, more expensive stores that offer nationally recognized brands. However, when the economy tanks, thriftiness becomes more appealing and sensible. Dollar stores' coffers are replenished as consumers start searching for cheaper items.
In general, dollar stores keep prices low through cost-cutting measures. Dollar Tree, the only national chain that sells items for a dollar, cuts costs by selling items in smaller sizes and spreading out deliveries through the week. Other chains and independent stores have taken to selling some merchandise for one dollar and others, like national brands, for near-traditional retail prices. And some items, like big-ticket electronics, simply aren't found in dollar stores unless they've been liquidated as part of another company's stock. Once items like these are gone, they're gone, which can make shopping for these particular items at dollar stores a hit-or-miss proposition.