The gender pay gap in the United States has remained relatively stable over the past 20 years. According to a. an average of 82% of what men earnedneue Analyse des Pew Research Centerthe mean hourly earnings of full-time and part-time employees. These results are similar to those of the wage gap in 2002, when women earned 80% as much as men.
As has long been the case, the pay gap for workers aged 25-34 is narrower than for all workers aged 16 and over. In 2022, women ages 25 to 34 earned an average of 92 cents for every dollar a man of the same age group earned — a difference of 8 cents. In comparison, the gender pay gap among workers of all ages was 18 cents that year.
While the gender pay gap has not changed significantly over the past two decades, it has narrowed significantly over the longer term, both for all workers aged 16 and over and for those aged 25-34. The gender pay gap is estimated to be 18 cents among all workers in 2022, down from 35 cents in 1982. And the 8 cent gap among workers aged 25 to 34 in 2022 had narrowed from 26 cents four decades ago.
how we did it
The gender pay gap measures the difference in median hourly earnings between men and women working full-time or part-time in the United States. The Pew Research Center's estimate of the pay gap is based on an analysis ofCurrent population survey(CPS) monthly outgoing rotation group files (IPU) from January 1982 to December 2022, aggregated to create annual files. To understand how we calculate the gender pay gap, read our 2013 post,"How the Pew Research Center Measured the Gender Pay Gap."
The outbreak of COVID-19affected data collection effortsby the US government in their surveys, particularly in 2020 and 2021, limiting personal data collection and impacting response rates. It is possible that some measures of economic outcomes and their differences across demographic groups are affected by these changes in data collection.
In addition to insights into the gender pay gap, this analysis includes information from a Pew Research Center survey on perceived reasons for the pay gap, pressures, and career aspirations for US men and women. The survey was conducted among 5,098 adults and includes a subset of questions asked only for 2,048 adults employed part-time or full-time on October 10-16, 2022. All participants are members of the Center's American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel recruited through national random sampling of residential addresses. In this way, almost all adult Americans have a choice. The survey is weighted to be representative of the US adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, political party affiliation, education and other categories. Read more aboutthe ATP methodology.
Here arethe questions usedin this analysis, together with answers, andhis methodology.
TheUS Census Bureaualso analyzed the gender pay gap, although his analysis only looks at full-time workers (as opposed to full-time and part-time workers). In 2021, year-round, full-time women were earning, on average, 84% of what their male counterparts were earning, according to the latest Census Bureau analysis.
Much of the gender pay gap has been explained bymeasurable factorssuch as educational attainment, occupational segregation and work experience. The long-term narrowing of the gap is due in large part to the advances women have made on each of these dimensions.
Related:The persistent grip of the gender pay gap
Although women have increased their presence in higher-paying, traditionally male-dominated occupations, such as technical and managerial positions, women remain overall over-represented in lower-paid occupations relative to their share of the labor force. This can contribute to gender pay gaps.
Other factors that are difficult to measure, including gender discrimination, may also contribute to the persistent pay gap.
Perceived reasons for the gender pay gap
When asked about the factors that might play a role in the gender pay gap, half of U.S. adults cite differential treatment of women by employers as the top reason, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October 2022. Smaller proportions indicate that women make different decisions about work-life balance (42%) and work in lower-paying jobs (34%).
There are some notable differences between men and women when it comes to what lies behind the gender pay gap. Women are much more likely than men (61% vs. 37%) to say that a key reason for the gap is that employers treat women differently. And while 45% of women say that one important factor is that women make different choices about how to balance work and family life, men are slightly less likely to think so (40% say so).
Parents with children under the age of 18 in the household are more likely than those who do not have young children at home (48% vs. 40%) to say that a key reason for the pay gap is the choices women make to compensate create family and work. This question shows differences in parental status for both men and women.
Opinions on the reasons for the gender pay gap also differ from party to party. About two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents (68%) say a major factor in wage differentials is that employers treat women differently, but far fewer Republicans and Republican-leaning voters (30%) say the same. Conversely, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say that women's work-life balance choices (50% vs. 36%) and their tendency to work in lower-paying jobs (39% vs. 30%) are the top reasons why Women earn less than men.
Democratic and Republican women are more likely than their male counterparts in the same party to say that a key reason for the gender pay gap is that employers treat women differently. About three-quarters of Democratic women (76%) say so, compared to 59% of Democratic men. And while 43% of Republican women say employer inequality is a key reason for the gender pay gap, only 18% of GOP men share this view.
Stress for working women and men
Family caring responsibilities place different burdens on working women and men, and research has shown that this can be a motherreduce women's income, while paternity canincrease men's income.
According to the center's October survey, working women and men are about equally likely to say they feel a lot of pressure to support their families financially and to be successful in their jobs and careers. But women, and particularly working mothers, are more likely than men to say they feel a lot of pressure to focus on chores at home.
About half of working women (48%) feel a lot of pressure to focus on their chores at home, compared to 35% of working men. For working mothers with children under 18 in the household, two-thirds (67%) say the same, compared to 45% for working fathers.
When it comes to supporting their families financially, a similar proportion of working mothers and fathers (57% vs. 62%) say they feel a lot of pressure, but this is mainly due to the large proportion of unmarried working mothers who say they do feel a lot of pressure (77%) about this. Among married people, working fathers are much more likely than working mothers (60% vs. 43%) to say they feel a lot of pressure to support their families financially. (There were not enough unmarried working fathers in the sample to analyze them separately.)
About four in ten working parents say they feel a lot of pressure to be successful in their job or career. These results do not differ by gender.
Gender differences in job roles, aspirations
Overall, a quarter of employed adult Americans say they are currently the boss or one of the top managers in their workplace, according to the center's survey. Another 33% say they are not currently the boss but would like to be in the future, while 41% are not and do not aspire to be the boss or one of the top managers.
Men are more likely than women to be bosses or top managers in their workplace (28% vs. 21%). This is especially true for working fathers, with 35% saying they are the boss or one of the top managers in their workplace. (The different attitudes between fathers and childless men reflect, at least in part, differences in marital and educational status between the two groups.)
Aside from the fact that women are less likely than men to say they are currently the boss or a top manager at work, women are also more likely to say they don't want to be in that type of position in the future. More than four in ten working women (46%) say so, compared to 37% of men. Similar numbers of men (35%) and women (31%) say they are not currently the boss but would like to be one someday. These patterns are similar in parents.
Note:This is an update of a post originally published on March 22, 2019. Anna Brown and former Pew Research Center writer/editor Amanda Barroso contributed to an earlier version of this analysis. Here arethe questions usedin this analysis, together with answers, andhis methodology.
subjects
Gender pay gapgender roles
Carolina Aragon is a research associate specializing in social and demographic trends at Pew Research Center.
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FAQs
The US gender pay gap has not changed significantly in two decades? ›
The gender gap in pay has remained relatively stable in the United States over the past 20 years or so. In 2022, women earned an average of 82% of what men earned, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers.
Has the gender pay gap in the us hasn t changed much in two decades? ›While having a degree, working in specific industries that offer higher salaries, and having the requisite skills and experience has helped women close the gender gap slightly since 1982, Pew notes that the pay gap has been stagnant since 2002, ranging from 80 to 85 cents to the dollar.
Has the gender pay gap improved? ›The gender pay gap – the difference between the earnings of men and women – has barely closed in the United States in the past two decades. In 2022, American women typically earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. That was about the same as in 2002, when they earned 80 cents to the dollar.
How long has the gender pay gap been around in the US? ›Though the gender wage gap probably dates to the beginnings of civilization, it emerged as a political issue in the U.S. in the 1860s under the rallying cry of “Equal Pay for Equal Work.”
What was the gender pay gap in USA in 1980? ›As both the images and the realities of women successfully navigating professional careers became more commonplace, the wage gap steadily narrowed: women's wages represented 64% of men's in 1980, 72% in 1990, and 77% in 2000. Progress has largely stalled since then, hovering around the 80% mark for more than a decade.
When did the gender pay gap end? ›The Equal Pay Act of 1963 proscribes gender-based pay discrimination among employees within the same establishment who do "substantially equal" work.
Is the gender pay gap reducing? ›Median pay for all employees was 14.9% less for women than for men in April 2022. The full-time pay gap has been getting smaller since 1997 and the overall pay gap has also decreased over the period. The part-time pay gap has generally remained small and negative, with women earning more than men on average.
What is the problem with gender wage gap? ›conscious and unconscious discrimination and bias in hiring and pay decisions. women and men working in different industries and different jobs, with female-dominated industries and jobs attracting lower wages. lack of workplace flexibility to accommodate caring and other responsibilities, especially in senior roles.
What is the gender pay gap in the US 2023? ›Today is Equal Pay Day in 2023, a reminder of systemic inequality faced by women and especially those of color. In the U.S., women who work full-time, year-round, are paid an average of 83.7 percent as much as men, which amounts to a difference of $10,000 per year.
Where is the gender pay gap the worst? ›...
Top 15 States With the Biggest Wage Gaps.
| State | Women's Earnings as % of Men's | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Wyoming | 68.5% |
| 2. | Louisiana | 72.9% |
| 3. | Utah | 73.0% |
| 4. | Montana | 75.2% |
Why is the Equal Pay Act not working? ›
The law has been weakened by loopholes, inadequate remedies, and adverse court rulings, resulting in protection that is far less effective than Congress originally intended.
What was the gender pay gap in the 70s? ›Despite the 1970 Equal Pay Act, a gender pay gap still exists today. In some professions and at some levels women's wages are equal to men's. But on average women are still paid less than men to do the same jobs. In the 1970s women, on average, were paid about 50% of men's wages in manufacturing and the professions.
What was the US gender pay gap in 2010? ›White women earned 81 percent as much as their male counterparts in 2010, while Asian women earned 83 percent as much as their male counterparts. By comparison, Hispanic women had earnings that were 91 percent of those of their male counterparts, while Black women earned 94 percent as much as Black men.
What was the gender pay gap in 1990s? ›1990-1994: Women earn 71.9% of men's wages
While the wage gap narrowed more in the 1990s, it was a much slower closing than that of the 1980s. The 1990s saw a rise in awareness of some of the issues plaguing women in the workplace.
women and men narrowed for most major age groups. The women's-to-men's earnings ratio among 35- to 44-year-olds, for example, increased from 58.3 percent in 1979 to 71.1 per- cent in 2000, and that for 45- to 54-year-olds rose from 56.9 percent to 72.7 percent.
What was the gender wage gap between 1980 and 2000? ›Between 1980 and 2000—when women's real earnings grew while men's remained unchanged—the gender earnings ratio increased from 60.2 percent (in 1980) to 71.6 percent (in 1990) to 73.7 percent (in 2000).
What was the gender pay gap in the 1900s? ›That is, women's earnings rose from, on average, about 30 percent of what men made to about 50 percent. From about 1900 to 1930, when the clerical and sales sectors began their rise, the ratio of female to male earnings rose from 0.46 to 0.56.
What was the gender pay gap in the 1950s? ›Way back in the 1950s, women earned around 60 percent on average of what men earned when working year-round full time. And it stayed right around at that level until about 1980. Then, particularly in the decade of the 80s, there was really considerable progress in narrowing the gender pay gap.
What was the gender pay gap in 1992? ›Table 1 presents the wage gap decompositions for 1989, 1992, and 1999. The gender gap has narrowed from 30 percent in 1989, to 26 percent in 1992, and 24 percent in 1999.
What are the benefits of closing the gender pay gap? ›Valuing women for the work they do, acknowledging them as equals to their male colleagues and compensating them accordingly reduces their risk of falling into poverty, increases access to high-quality child and medical care, schools, and both higher and early childhood education, all contributing to the future economic ...
Is the gender pay gap the same as unequal pay? ›
The gender pay gap is the difference in average pay between the men and women in your workforce. It is different to equal pay, which means you must pay men and women the same for equal or similar work.
What is gender pay gap opposite? ›Because of this, we have what is called a negative pay gap, or a reverse pay gap, which means that women average higher pay than men, in the organization as a whole, and in five of the six countries we analyzed.
What is the biggest cause of the gender wage gap? ›The largest identifiable causes of the gender wage gap are differences in the occupations and industries where women and men are most likely to work.
What are the four main causes of the gender wage gap? ›- Differences in industries or jobs worked. ...
- Differences in years of experience. ...
- Differences in hours worked. ...
- Discrimination.
Female athletes get paid less because, in general, the professional sports leagues that female athletes are involved with have smaller audiences and generate a lot less revenue than male professional sports leagues.
Which state in the US has the gender pay gap? ›Women Earn Less Than Men in Every State
New York (88 cents), California (87 cents) and Rhode Island (86 cents) were also among states with the smallest pay gaps. Wyoming, Louisiana and Utah were among the worst states for gender pay parity. Women in Wyoming made less than 68 cents for every dollar a man made.
Wage inequality
Gender-based wage stratification has become a major issue in post-reform China. A 2013 study found that women are paid 75.4 percent of what men are paid (an average of RMB 399 per month, compared to RMB 529 per month for men).
In 2021, the gender pay gap, which measures the percentage difference in average gross hourly earnings between men and women, amounted to 18% in Germany. As in previous years, this was considerably higher than the EU27 average (13%).
What violates the Equal Pay Act? ›An employer violates the Equal Pay Act when its pay policies cause or attempt to cause the employer to discriminate against an employee based upon the employee's gender/sex.
Is wage compression illegal? ›Employers and managers must never prohibit employees from discussing pay as so doing would violate employee rights. Under the National Labor Relations Act, employees have the right to discuss working conditions, which includes compensation.
What replaced the Equal Pay Act? ›
Effective January 1, 2016, the “Fair Pay Act of 2015” expanded California's Equal Pay Act by removing the requirement that the pay differential be within the same “establishment,” and replaced the “equal” and “same” job, skill, effort, and responsibility standard, with a new standard that only requires a showing of “ ...
What was the gender pay gap in America in the 1930s? ›In the 1930s, the United States federal government required that female employees be paid 25% less than male employees.
What was the gender pay gap in 1974? ›From earning 59 percent of what men made in 1974 to earning 79 percent in 2015 (among year-round, full-time workers), women have broken a lot of barriers.
What was the pay gender gap in 2012? ›workers had median usual weekly earnings of $691. On average in 2012, women made about 81 percent of the median earnings of male full-time wage and salary workers ($854). In 1979, the first year for which comparable earnings data are available, women earned 62 percent of what men earned.
What was the gender pay gap in 2009? ›In 2009, women earned 89 percent as much as men among workers 25 to 34 years old and 93 percent as much among 16- to 24-year-olds. In the age groupings of those 35 years and older, women had earnings that were roughly three-fourths as much as their male counterparts.
What was the gender wage gap in 1979? ›In 1979, the first year for which comparable earnings data are available, women earned 62 percent of what men earned. Among the age groupings of those 35 years and older, women had earnings that ranged from 75 percent to 78 percent of the earnings of their male counterparts.
What was the gender pay gap in 2015 us? ›In 2015, women's earnings ranged from 74 to 82 percent of men's among workers age 35 and older. For those under age 35, the earnings differences between women and men were smaller, with women earning about 88 to 90 percent of what men did.
What was the gender pay gap in 2017? ›In 2017, the ratio of women's to men's median weekly full-time earnings was 81.8 percent, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points since 2016, when the ratio was 81.9 percent, leaving a wage gap of 18.2 percentage points, nearly the same as the 18.1 percentage points in 2016.
What was the gender pay gap in 2001? ›| Year | Women's hourly earnings at the median as a share of men's hourly earnings at the median |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 77.13% |
| 2000 | 78.29% |
| 2001 | 78.79% |
| 2002 | 80.05% |
The women's-to-men's earnings ratio varied significantly by demographic group. The ratio was about 88 percent for both blacks and Hispanics or Latinos in 2003; for whites it was 79 percent; and for Asians it was 78 percent.
How have the real wages of US workers changed since 1980? ›
Wages in the U.S. have stagnated since the early 1970s. Between 1979 and 2020, workers' wages grew by 17.5% while productivity grew over three times as fast at 61.8%.
What was the gender pay gap in 2000 us? ›women and men narrowed for most major age groups. The women's-to-men's earnings ratio among 35- to 44-year-olds, for example, increased from 58.3 percent in 1979 to 71.1 per- cent in 2000, and that for 45- to 54-year-olds rose from 56.9 percent to 72.7 percent.
What state has the worst gender pay gap? ›Wyoming, Louisiana and Utah were among the worst states for gender pay parity. Women in Wyoming made less than 68 cents for every dollar a man made. The pay gap is also present among all races and ethnicities.
Which state has the highest gender pay gap in USA? ›Wyoming tops the list for states with the highest wage gaps between men and women—$21,676—while Vermont ranks as the state with the lowest—$4,600, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau. Following Wyoming as the states with the highest wage gaps are: Utah—$17,303. Washington D.C. (state equivalent)—$16,032.
What was the gender pay gap in the 1960s in US? ›For about 20 years, through the 1960s and 1970s, the female-to-male earnings ratio was stagnant, hovering between 57 to 61 cents to the dollar of male earnings.
Is there still a pay gap in the US? ›Stats. Overall, women are not paid as much as men, even when working full time and year round. On average, women working full time, year round are paid 83.7% of what men are paid. This inequity is even greater for Black and Hispanic women.
What is the biggest gender pay gap in the world? ›- South Korea. 31.1%
- Israel. 24.3.
- Latvia. ...
- Japan. 22.1.
- Cyprus. 21.1.
- Estonia. 20.4.
- US. 16.9.
- Canada. 16.7.
Industries with the smallest gender pay gaps:
Construction (91 cents) Technology (90 cents) Education (89 cents)
As of 2021, Belgium is the country with the most equal pay between the genders of OECD countries. The gender pay gap was at 1.17 percent. South Korea, on the other hand, is the country with the highest gender pay gap of the OECD countries with a 31 percent difference between the genders.
Is there a gender pay gap for same job in us? ›The "unexplained pay gap"
Blau and her research partner Lawrence Kahn controlled for "everything we could find reliable data on" and found that women still earn about 8% less than their male colleagues for the same job.
What is the gender pay gap in US healthcare? ›
For every dollar a man earns, a woman earns only 74 cents. This translates to between $0.9 million and $2.5 million less in career earnings for women physicians compared to men, depending on the type of medicine practiced.