This presidential election year, stagnant wages and growing income inequality are issues that concern voters and candidates on the left and on the right. In publishing, based on the mixed results of a Publishers Weekly survey released this week, those concerns could surface at the next editorial meeting.

“In 2015, men earned an average of $96,000 compared to an average of $61,000 for women. Furthermore, 72% of men reported that they earned $70,000 or more compared to only 41% of women. The most common salary level for women was in the $40,000–$69,999 range, which contained the salaries of 42% of women,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.

“The persistence of this gap to me, in an industry that is so built on the work of women, is astounding to me,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “And while diversity issues are getting a little more attention these days, there has been little progress on that front. The percentage of publishing employees who identified themselves as white/Caucasian was 88% in 2015, roughly flat over last year.”