Internet virtual tours draw adult interest

Internet users are traveling across the world from their living rooms: A new study finds that 45 percent of adult American online users have taken advantage of features that permit virtual tours of another location.

And while the young tend to dominate most online activities, older users are more likely to participate in virtual tours, whose destinations include museums, colleges and — in a growing market — real estate listed for sale.

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 52 percent of those ages 40-49 have taken advantage of such virtual tours, compared with 37 percent of those ages 18-27. Urban and educated users also were more likely to take part.

Virtual tours can involve photographs, video or 360-degree “cameras” that let visitors pan around a room, building or other defined area. Many work better with high-speed connections.

Lee Rainie, the study’s director, said the finding reflected the increased availability of such connections, as well as continuing improvements to Web sites.

Labor

Survey finds gender pay gap widening

Same work, less pay.

Women have been fighting for decades to narrow the wage gap with male workers who earn more while doing the same work — and an annual survey on the subject suggests that in 2003, women fell even further behind.

The National Association for Female Executives says its latest Salary Survey found that full-time female employees earned 76 cents for every $1 earned by male peers, down from 77 cents in 2002.

Among examples cited in the study: Women anesthesiologists earned $64,000 less than male colleagues did; women scientists doing medical research earned just 71.3 percent of their male peers’ incomes.

“With all the improvements we’ve seen for working women over the last decade, it’s stunning that the gender wage gap should widen,” said Betty Spence, president of the association, which is part of New York-based Working Mother Media. “But legislators tell me they’re not hearing about this issue. Women across the country need to demand more aggressive action by government to combat these inequities.”

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