Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - [Homestead] Male-Female Wage Gap in Cowboy Country

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Jerry W. Shepperd" <shepperd AT austincc.edu>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Cc: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Male-Female Wage Gap in Cowboy Country
  • Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 11:19:10 -0600

An interesting item about one rural Texas county. If you can go to the website, check out the picture gallery. There is also a short video, which requires either Realplayer or Windows Media

Jerry S.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4486560

from National Public Radio


Male-Female Wage Gap in Cowboy Country

by <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2783201>Howard Berkes

<http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=2>All Things Considered, February 8, 2005 · In the United States, men generally earn more money than women -- about 25 percent more, on average. But that’s not the case everywhere. In 15 counties scattered across America, women working full time, on average, take home bigger paychecks than men.

All of those counties are rural, and most are in the Western United States, including King County, Texas, where this unconventional wage gap is widest. The average female worker in King County makes 30 percent more than her male counterpart -- that equals about $9,000 a year.

NPR’s Howard Berkes recently visited King County to meet some of the working men and women there, and examine the reasons behind the gap.

King County is true cowboy country. In fact, its rolling prairies and rugged cowpokes are featured in Marlboro cigarette ads running overseas. The county stretches over 900 square miles of range land and oil fields in northwestern Texas. There are less than 400 human residents, about 1,000 horses and about 10,000 cows. No stoplights, no supermarkets, no restaurants, no local newspapers, no incorporated towns.

And that's part of the reason for the wage gap -- much of the work here is traditionally defined as "men's work." Hard, dirty, often dangerous work, punching cattle or tending oil rigs. Men wear spurs, and use them.

Women, on the other hand, outnumber the men at the local courthouse, and there are more female teachers in the schools. Those jobs generally pay better than work as a ranch hand, and teachers get many benefits -- free housing, a salary boost -- for working in such a remote location.

But men and women say the dollar amounts don't tell the full story. Some ranch hands, for example, also get free housing, plus health insurance, a pickup truck and gas, and other benefits. That, and a full year's supply of beef.

And regardless of the wage gap, the traditional male-female roles remain much the same as anywhere else. The biggest ranch in the county may be owned by a woman in Fort Worth, but it's managed by men. Men are the decision-makers at the courthouse, and both the principal and superintendent at the school are men.

All this talk of male-female pay gaps doesn't phase Linda Lewis, who makes a good living as the County Clerk, and her husband Ron Lewis, a veteran cowboy. "It doesn't concern us," says Ron Lewis. "God's been good to us. He’s provided for us really well, we've raised our family here. It's just a blessing."

"It's not mine and yours -- it's ours. We put it together," adds Linda Lewis. "So it's no big deal."
les
From genegerue AT ruralize.com Wed Feb 9 12:24:10 2005
Return-Path: <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
X-Original-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Delivered-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: from fed1rmmtao08.cox.net (fed1rmmtao08.cox.net [68.230.241.31])
by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D308B4C009
for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Wed, 9 Feb 2005 12:24:09 -0500
(EST)
Received: from SLIM.ruralize.com ([68.230.50.216]) by fed1rmmtao08.cox.net
(InterMail vM.6.01.04.00 201-2131-117-20041022) with ESMTP
id <20050209172409.RVGK7567.fed1rmmtao08.cox.net AT SLIM.ruralize.com>
for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Wed, 9 Feb 2005 12:24:09 -0500
Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20050209101746.0291f7b8 AT mail.itsamac.com>
X-Sender: genegerue%ruralize.com AT mail.itsamac.com
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 10:23:40 -0700
To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Help on buying and selling land
In-Reply-To: <FA9FC0EAE8B8104D9F44A3C9E227905E058DE4 AT zinc.cns.loc>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
X-BeenThere: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
Reply-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
List-Id: homestead.lists.ibiblio.org
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
<mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead>
List-Post: <mailto:homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
<mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 17:24:10 -0000


How do I minimize the taxes I have to pay(legally) if there are any?
Some articles I've read claim the inherited amount is the fair market
value at the time of inheritance and selling it for that would produce
no additional income.

Clint, you should talk to a CPA about tax questions regarding inheritance
and sale of property. There are many issues.

When we finally move, sell our house and take the money we've made from the
house is there a way to reinvest it into the property we will
hopefully have by then?

Taxes on profit are likely a non-issue. If you have lived in your home for
two of the last five years, you don't even have to report the sale to the
IRS. For a married couple, the first half-million dollars of profit is
tax-free. This is the greatest gift to home owners I have ever seen, and
should be taken advantage of.






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page