E-Mail This Article to a Friend SEX AND SALARY Mind the wage gap BYDEIRDRE FULTON

As a 22-year-old reporter with a bachelor’s degree and a job in Boston, I could lose up to $1.3 million over my working life due to gender discrimination, according to the WAGE Project’s online "wage gap calculator" at www.wageproject.org.

"So now you’re aware of it," says Evelyn Murphy, founder of WAGE (Women Are Getting Even) and co-author of Getting Even: Why Women Still Don’t Get Paid Like Men — And What To Do About It, when I call her a few moments after the consulting the calculator. "It’s not going to be that you wake up at 32 and say, ‘Oops, I missed all that.’ At least you’re now fully aware of it and what the stakes are."

Despite 40 years of women reaching critical mass in the workforce, the average woman makes only 77 cents for every dollar the average man earns. The gap increases with age. Pregnancy and childcare often stand in the way of women and fair wages, adds Murphy, an economist who served as the Bay State’s lieutenant governor from 1987 to 1991 and whose goal it is to close the wage gap.

"I’m stunned by the extent of this unfair treatment," she says. "A lot of it is unreflective, it’s old biases and stereotypes, and some of it is just plain discrimination."

But, Murphy explains, recent college graduates have the chance to turn the tide by insisting on the same pay a man would receive when joining the workforce. "I don’t mean you have to be angry or confrontational about all this," she says. "It’s just kind of no-nonsense knowing how best to take full advantage of your earning power. And then just do it."

All of the data on www.wageproject.org is based on federal statistics. Besides educating today’s workforce about inequitable pay among women, it accomplishes one of Murphy’s missions: to get people talking. So far waitresses, computer scientists, government workers, and retail salespeople have shared their tales of unequal pay. "I was the only female on the writing team and all the men were given the nice, challenging assignments that required real thinking," one 32-year-old technical writer posted on the site. "My housemate and I worked for the same contract agency as well and the real shock of the story came when reviews came up for both of us. He was given a 10 percent raise and I was offered a 1.5 percent raise....When I called [the manager] on the raise given to my house mate, he simply said that ‘that was different.’ "

It’s a story Murphy knows all too well. "Many CEOs, I think, don’t believe that any unfair or discriminatory behavior happens in their company, in their offices — and that’s women as well as men," she says. "I don’t believe any CEO wants to think that he’s treating women unfairly.... But until he sees — or she sees — the data in front of him that shows him that it’s a fact, there will continue to be a problem."

Evelyn Murphy will address "Business Rhythms: A Speakers Forum," sponsored by The Commonwealth Institute, on Wednesday, November 9, at the Boston Sheraton. Call 617.859.0080 for information.