Jana Kilgore knows she isn't earning as much as she could be.

Part of that, she acknowledged on Tuesday, is associated with her gender.

The owner of Aroma Coeur d'Alene Massage and Skincare admits her industry isn't high paying, and that it primarily attracts women.

"I think when I graduated massage school, there were 25 in our class and only two of them were men," Kilgore recalled.

It's also no secret she could take on more clients, if she wasn't also juggling motherhood of three children, ages 6, 9 and 11.

"A lot of months I felt I was working to pay for day care," Kilgore said, adding that her husband's pension has helped her stay in business. "(Parenthood) is actually a harder job than running my business."

Not that she would have it any other way.

Massage therapy is her calling, she said, and her children are gifts. All worth more than any green.

"I love my job, and the people who are helped by what I do make it worthwhile," she said.

Stories like Kilgore's add up in our area.

And they add up to mediocre incomes.

While the median earnings of men in Kootenai County was $31,535 in 2011, the median earnings of women here was only $22,767, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

That means women's median earnings in the county were only 72 percent of men's.

Nationwide, women earned 78.8 percent of men's pay in 2011, according to 24/7 Wall St., a financial news operation.

The income disparity is likely due to men working in higher paying industries like construction and manufacturing, said Regional Economist Kathryn Tacke.

Women are more likely to pursue "helping" professions like counseling, she said, which pay less.

"Given society's long-term concepts of what a man does and what a woman does, and also because some jobs do require physical skills that might not be as common for women as for men, you end up with that kind of difference," said Tacke, with the Idaho Department of Labor.

Women's median earnings are also lower because they are prone to work fewer hours, she added.

"So they can take care of their children or aging family members," Tacke stated.

That was the case for Katie Mans.

Tired of working 80 hour weeks as an auditorium manager for North Idaho College, the Coeur d'Alene woman became a beauty consultant for Mary Kay.

While still boosting the family income, Mans had time to ferry her three boys to sports practices, she said, and to look after ailing family members.

"It was something that I was able to set my own hours and be very flexible," Mans said.

Her compensation is simply tied to how much she wants to work, she added.

"I set my goals and work accordingly," she said.

She isn't surprised to hear that women earn less here, she said, attributing that to the area's conservative nature.

But women can be as successful as men in North Idaho, she contended.

"I think if you're willing, you can find (success)," Mans said, noting her own work ethic. "You have to have the attitude to do it."

Dustin Ainsworth, a founder of The Coeur Group organization for young businessmen, was startled to learn the income disparity.

"That number seems a little low," he said of women's median income.

Ainsworth, a marketing representative for Kootenai Title Company, has personally relied on his talent for networking to get ahead, he said.

He sees that method working just as well for women as men in the area, he said.

He sees men and women equally attracted to work in his industry, he added.

"They both do the job. It's hard to say if one does it better than the other," Ainsworth said. "There are a lot of women role models in this town I look up to, and in equal parts men I look up to."

He couldn't guess why women earn less here, he added.

"In the past, (male-heavy fields) had always kind of been the dominating industries, like mining and everything else. But not so much anymore," he said, noting that tourism is more prominent now.

Christina Petit, director of sales and marketing at the Coeur d'Alene Best Western Inn, hasn't faced any barrier to earning as much as her male counterparts, she said.

A former radio broadcaster, Petit was hired into hotel sales and gradually worked her way up the ladder.

"I was able to move up in the ranks, based on personal experience," she said, adding that she deems her current compensation as completely fair.

If women want to earn more, it just takes hard work, Petit said.

In her line of work, at least.

"In sales, it's all about your personality, your connections and networking," she said. "It doesn't matter if you're male or female."