The wage gap between women and men has narrowed to a slimmer margin than ever, but the disparity that remains could prove the hardest of all to close.

Women's income as a portion of that earned by men jumped from 73.7 cents for every male dollar in 2000 to 76.3 cents in 2001, the largest increase in 13 years, according to the latest Census Bureau data.

Equal-pay advocates, however, say the reason for that change was that men's wages were falling because of the job-market downturn, and not a major economic stride on the part of women.

They say the wage gap remains far too wide and that more must be done by men and women to close it, especially in South Carolina, where it has grown beyond the national average, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 1999, working women in South Carolina earned an average of 70.9 cents for every $1 earned by their male counterparts. The wage ratio for the United States was 72 cents to the dollar, according to the government figures.

The problem in South Carolina and elsewhere is that women are at a cultural disadvantage, said Jennet Robinson Alterman, executive director of the Center for Women in West Ashley, a nonprofit group that provides educational and networking services to women.

She said motherhood and differences in experience levels, occupational choices and negotiating skills partly explain why women still earn just under 77 cents to the male dollar 40 years after the passage of the federal Equal Pay Act.

"Women struggle more than men to balance career with family, and that can make them less competitive in the workplace," Alterman said.

She said the system is unfair because it penalizes mothers more than fathers.

"Just because somebody takes time off for a life transition shouldn't mean they receive a lower compensation," she said.

To correct the problem, Alterman said, state and federal laws on wage equality must be tightened because they are now too vague and too easily sidestepped by employers.

Last month, Alterman and the Center for Women sponsored a conference that drew more than 100 women professionals interested in career- and salary-advancement training. Alterman said the workshop session most in demand at the conference was on professional negotiating skills, which women lack relative to men.

She said women's frustration over compensation in the workplace has led them to become the fastest-growing entrepreneurial demographic in the state.

"They're increasingly starting their own businesses because they're tired of working for someone else and making less money than their male counterparts," she said.

As a result, the center recently began an entrepreneurial education series to help women get their businesses off the ground and sustain them.

"My generation was not encouraged to be competitive, but the current generation is ... and the system has to catch up with them," she said.

Other equal-pay advocates say that if the remaining gap is not closed soon, women may face uncertain times ahead.

"The baby-boomer population of women is in serious trouble," said Betty Spence, president of the National Association of Female Executives in New York. "If you're earning $10,000 a year less than your male counterpart, that adds up to $400,000 over the life of a career."

And if you calculate the potential for differences in investment income, the dollar disparity grows to the millions, she said.

Also, wage gaps eventually lead to retirement and pension gaps, since retirement plans are often based on accumulated lifetime earnings.

The underlying problem, Spence agreed, is a combination of cultural and professional differences between the sexes, compounded by discrimination.

When it comes to parenthood, she said, women choose or are forced to make greater career sacrifices than their spouses, resulting in more time away from work and fewer bargaining chips.

That may explain some of the psychology behind why women also spend less time and effort negotiating for higher pay.

"When an offer is put on the table, the man sees an opening gambit while the woman sees a final offer because she is more focused on the relationship and trying to maintain that.

I'm not justifying the fact that women earn less, but I do know that companies don't give away money they don't have to," Spence said.

Despite women's efforts to overcome such differences, the wage gap will persist for as long as there remains gender bias in the workplace, she said.

"Even when economists factor out these variables, the wage gap remains and cannot be explained away by any factor other than discrimination," Spence said. "The fact is that women are more than half the college grads, more than half the professional talent. And it is shown that companies with more women at the top perform better."

Indeed, a study released in January of 353 Fortune 500 companies shows there may be a correlation between women and performance.

The study, commissioned by Catalyst, which advocates for the advancement of women in business, examined the companies between 1996 and 2000 and found that those with the highest representation of women on their senior management teams had a 35 percent higher return on equity and a 34 percent higher total return to shareholders than those with the lowest representation.

Heidi Hartmann, an economist and director of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, said the onus is now on private-sector employers, not their female employees, to make women's pay more comparable to that of men's.

"I think women have done almost everything they can to close the gap. If there's something else they should do, I don't know what it is," she said. "What we really need is a change in the behavior of employers. If you ask anyone whether women are less talented than men, they'd say no."

Frank Norton covers banking and legislative issues. He can be reached at 937-5594 or fnorton@postandcourier.com.