Jackson, Miss. ? Women in the United States earned only 73 cents for every dollar men were paid in 1999, though the gap narrowed during the 1990s, according to census figures released Tuesday.

Women gained roughly 7 cents on the dollar during the 10-year period, according to the Census Bureau’s long form.

The figure does not necessarily mean that women are being paid less than men for doing the same job. Instead, the census looked at earnings in 1999 for full-time workers in all industries and found that the national median income for men is $35,922 and $26,292 for women.

“I would say we have a long way to go toward closing the gap,” said Marianne Hill, an economist for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning.

Experts said the main reasons for the wage gap are that women often take time off to have children and lose experience and pay because of it; that women often choose lower-paying professions, such as teaching and social work; and that women are discriminated against when it comes to promotions and raises.

Karen Nussbaum, assistant to the president of AFL-CIO, said a recent study by her group attributed about half of the wage gap to discrimination. One of the biggest reasons for the narrowing of the gap was that many high-paying manufacturing jobs held by men have gone overseas, she said.