Seventy-eight percent (78%) of American women say men and women do not receive equal pay for equal work in the United States. A majority of men (53%) agree, but 37% do not.

Overall, 66% say men and women are not paid equally, 24% disagree, and 10% are not sure, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Women are far more likely than men to blame it on discrimination.

Nearly half of women (49%) attribute the unequal pay to discrimination. Seventeen percent (17%) say it’s due to different levels of experience, 10% to differing levels of ability, and 14% to something else. Ten percent (10%) are not sure.

Men say that experience and ability are the primary factors. Just 20% think the pay differential is because of discrimination. Thirty-four percent (34%) blame it on different levels of experience and 26% on differences in ability. Sixteen percent (16%) say something else, and four percent (4%) are unsure.

Put the two together, and 35% blame unequal pay on discrimination, 25% on different levels of experience, 18% on ability differences, 15% on something else and seven percent (7%) are undecided.

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Sixty-six percent (66%) of Americans agree with Obama’s statement at the bill signing that “equal pay is by no means just a women's issue, it's a family issue.” Nineteen percent (19%) disagree, and 15% are not sure.

Seventy-four percent (74%) of women believe this to be true, compared to 57% of men.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Democrats and those unaffiliated with either major political party agree with Obama’s comment, as do 60% of Republicans.

Obama last week signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act which extends the time in which lawsuits seeking equal pay can be filed. It was the first bill the new president signed into law. The act is named for a longtime Goodyear employee who found out after a number of years that her male co-workers were making more than she was, but she was prevented from suing by the existing statute of limitations.

Thirty-four percent (34%) of Republicans and 31% of those unaffiliated say women get equal pay for equal work, but just 12% of Democrats agree. Eighty percent (80%) of Democrats, 54% of Republicans and 58% of unaffiliateds say men and women are not paid the same.

The plurality of Democrats blame unequal pay on discrimination, while Republicans are closely divided between discrimination and different levels of experience.

In December, 38% said there is more discrimination in U.S. society against women than against African-Americans (32%), although generally the findings on this question, while close, tend to show a belief that blacks are more discriminated against.

Forty-one percent (41%) of Americans say they followed news stories about Obama’s signing of the fair pay law, including 10% who followed Very Closely. Twenty-eight percent (28%) say they didn’t follow the news of it at all. Men were more attentive to the story than women.

In a survey nearly five years ago, 51% of American workers said they received equal pay for equal work, but 37% said they did not.

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