On a smushed fixed-width table, jquery.width returns bad values

On a smushed fixed-width table, jquery.width returns bad values

I have a fixed width table with several columns. When populated with data, the natural width of the table is longer than the fixed with, so the column widths are compressed.

However, when using .width() on the table cells, jquery gives me bad values which seem to be "what the width should be" as opposed to "what the width is".

For example, I have a column titled "Description". When asking jquery for the width or outerWidth of the cell, it gives me 57. However examining a screenshot in photoshop, the width of the cell is 55.

Any ideas how to resolve this issue? It's wreaking havoc with my positioning code.

Thanks,

Josiwe