SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
gender pay gap
For Equal Pay Day, Let’s Finally Close the Gender Pay Gap
There has been little progress in narrowing this gender wage gap over the past three decades.
Mar 12, 2024
March 12 is Equal Pay Day, a reminder that there is still a significant pay gap between men and women in our country. The date represents how far into 2024 women would have to work on top of the hours they worked in 2023 simply to match what men were paid in 2023. Women were paid 21.8% less on average than men in 2023, after controlling for race and ethnicity, education, age, and geographic division.
There has been little progress in narrowing this gender wage gap over the past three decades, as shown in Figure A. While the pay gap declined between 1979 and 1994—due to men’s stagnant wages, not a tremendous increase in women’s wages—it has remained mostly flat since then.
The Gender Wage Gap Persists Across the Wage Distribution
The experience of men and women across the wage distribution differs considerably, but the gender wage gap persists no matter how it’s measured. Women are paid less than men as a result of occupational segregation, devaluation of women’s work, societal norms, and discrimination, all of which took root well before women entered the labor market. Figure B shows that women are paid less than men at all parts of the wage distribution.
What’s very stark from the data is that women with advanced degrees are paid less per hour, on average, than men with college degrees.
The wage gap is smallest among lower-wage workers, in part due to the minimum wage creating a wage floor. At the 10th percentile, women are paid $1.86 less an hour, or 12.8% less than men, while at the middle the wage gap is $3.87 an hour, or 14.9%. These low- and middle-wage gaps translate into annual earnings gaps of over $3,800 and $8,000, respectively, for a full-time worker. The 90th percentile is the highest wage category we can compare due to issues with topcoding in the data, which make it difficult to measure wages at the top of the distribution, particularly for men. Women are paid $14.74 less an hour, or 22.6% less, than men at the 90th percentile. That would translate into an annual earnings gap of over $30,000 for a full-time worker.
Women Are Paid Less Than Men at Every Education Level
Despite gains in educational attainment over the last five decades, women still face a significant wage gap. Among workers, women are more likely to graduate from college than men, and are more likely to receive a graduate degree than men. Even so, women are paid less than men at every education level, as shown in Figure C.
Among workers who have only a high school diploma, women are paid 21.3% less than men. Among workers who have a college degree, women are paid 26.8% less than men. That gap of $13.52 on an hourly basis translates to roughly $28,000 less annual earnings for a full-time worker. Women with an advanced degree also experience a significant the wage gap, at 25.2% in 2023. What’s very stark from the data is that women with advanced degrees are paid less per hour, on average, than men with college degrees. Men with a college degree only are paid $50.37 per hour on average compared with $48.21 for women with an advanced degree.
Black and Hispanic Women Experience the Largest Wage Gaps
If the overall gender pay gap isn’t enough cause for alarm, the wage gaps for Black and Hispanic women relative to white men are even larger due to compounded discrimination and occupational segregation based on both gender and race or ethnicity. In Figure D, we compare middle wages—or the average hourly wage between the 40th and 60th percentile of each group’s wage distribution—for white, Black, Hispanic, and Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) women with that of white men.
White women and AAPI women are paid 83.1% and 90.3%, respectively, of what non-Hispanic white men are paid at the middle. Black women are paid only 69.8% of white men’s wages at the middle, a gap of $8.65 on an hourly basis which translates to roughly $18,000 less annual earnings for a full-time worker. For Hispanic women, the gap is even larger at the middle: Hispanic women are paid only 64.6% of white men’s wages, an hourly wage gap of $10.15. For a full-time worker, that gap is over $21,000 a year.
These pay gaps are even larger when examining average hourly wages for all workers instead of just the average for middle-wage workers because of the disproportionate share of highly paid workers who are white men, which pulls up their average. Using the average measure, Black and Hispanic women are paid 63.4% and 58.3%, respectively, of white men’s wages, an hourly wage gap of $14.80 for Black women and $16.90 for Hispanic women. Even when controlling for age, education, and geographic division, Black and Hispanic women are both paid about 68% of white men’s wages. In other words, very little of the observed difference in pay is explained by differences in education, experience, or regional economic conditions.
Policymakers Must Pursue a Range of Options to Close the Gender Pay Gap
There is no silver bullet to solving pay equity, but rather a menu of policy options that can close not only the gender pay gap but also gaps by race and ethnicity. These include requiring federal reporting of pay by gender, race, and ethnicity; prohibiting employers from asking about pay history; requiring employers to post pay bands when hiring; and adequately staffing and funding the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission and other agencies charged with enforcement of nondiscrimination laws.
We also need policies that lift wages for most workers while also reducing gender and racial/ethnic pay gaps, such as running the economy at full employment, raising the federal minimum wage, and protecting and strengthening workers’ rights to bargain collectively for higher wages and benefits.
Keep ReadingShow Less
The Fate of Nations Is Tied to the Status of Women
The degree of women’s equality predicts best how peaceful or conflict-ridden their countries are.
Mar 08, 2024
On March 8, 1908, women garment workers marched through New York City’s Lower East Side to protest child labor and sweatshop working conditions and to demand women’s suffrage. By 1910, March 8 became observed annually as International Women’s Day and continues to be, more widely in other countries—often with protests—than in the United States. Why, I wonder?
In the spirit of International Women’s Day, let’s look at a brief profile of women’s status today and the consequences for our country and the world.
If I asked my brothers, my many nephews, male friends, and colleagues, did they think women are as capable as men, I wager that most, if not all, would say, “Yes.” Beyond doubt we women have all the talent, intelligence, and potential for leadership and political responsibility as men. But I have also learned from recent history that, in some cases—such as negotiating an end to conflict; working toward long-standing peace; and prioritizing health, education, and social welfare in government—women outperform men.
When will men dare to use the wisdom and skill of women to end their wars and create peace agreements that endure?
I would go so far as to say that the fate of nations is tied to the status of women. Studies back this up. A team of researchers has created the largest global database on the status of women called WomanStats. Their findings are profoundly illuminating for global security and world peace. In a sentence: the degree of women’s equality predicts best how peaceful or conflict-ridden their countries are. Consider that feminist revolutions to gain human rights and equality for women and girls have freed and saved the lives of millions of women and girls—without weapons, without fists, without a drop of blood spilled.
Let’s bring the injustice of female inequality down to the personal level, where millions of women and girls here and throughout the world experience sexual violence, sex trafficking, and prostitution; neglect of girls because of son preference; and preventable maternal mortality. Ponder this shocking finding: More lives were lost in the 20th century through male violence against women in all its forms than during 20th century wars and civil strife. Yet, while thousands of monuments in parks and plazas throughout the United States honor those who gave their lives for their country, only one—the first of its kind—is being planned for women who lost their lives giving birth to their country’s children.
The scourge of men raping women and girls is now compounded in those U.S. states that have denied or greatly diminished the reproductive right to abortion. It is estimated that there were 65,000 rape-related pregnancies between July 2022 and January 2024 in U.S. states banning abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 50-year women’s right to make their own reproductive decisions.
Looking into women’s economic status, we find that women have higher rates of poverty than men across most races and ethnicities, with women of color having the highest. Women are hired at a lower level than male counterparts and paid less for the same work, and this wage discrepancy follows them throughout their work life. Domestic violence causes women to lose an average of 8 million days of paid work per year and is a strong factor in women’s homelessness.
Not only do more women than men struggle to cover everyday expenses due to the gender wage gap, which has remained stagnant for 20 years—at about 82%—but the gap compounds over a lifetime, a significant factor contributing to the disparity in poverty rates among women and men age 75 and older.
Women’s birth of and care for children are not compensated with paid parental leave in the United States, unlike all other comparable countries; thus, women who give birth are cheated out of savings, pensions, and Social Security. No surprise then that the greatest risk factor for being poor in old age is having been a mother.
On a personal note: My fairest employer was my brother Michael: When I delivered papers for him in seventh and eighth grades, he paid me the same rate as himself. Bless you, Mike.
- Fairer than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency New England, which hired me a grade below a comparable male environmental engineer employed at the same time. (When I confronted the director about the inequity, he responded, “Doesn’t your husband work?”)
- Fairer than my next employer, which hired me at a significantly lower salary than a comparable male colleague, forcing me to enter into (successful) litigation to win equal pay for equal work and retroactive compensation.
Finally, studies of women and men negotiating post-conflict agreements found that all-male groups take riskier, less empathic, and more aggressive positions. Their negotiatons also break down more quickly than those that include women. Interestingly, men are more satisfied with decisions made with women involved than by all-male groups.
So where are the women in negotiations for permanent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, return of Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Israeli jails, and life-saving aid to Gaza? Where are the women in efforts to bring the war in Ukraine to an end? When will men dare to use the wisdom and skill of women to end their wars and create peace agreements that endure?
International Women’s Day is not only about the arithmetic of equality but also about its consequences—justice for women and girls and a better future for all in our country and the world.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Tens of Thousands of Women Strike in Iceland Over Pay Gap, Gender-Based Violence
"An 'equality paradise' should not have a 21% wage gap and 40% of women experiencing gender-based or sexual violence in their lifetime," said one organizer.
Oct 24, 2023
Schools, health systems, and television broadcasters in Iceland were among the businesses that said they would have to close or reduce services on Tuesday due to the country's first full-day women's strike in nearly 50 years—potentially helping to prove the point that tens of thousands of women and non-binary workers are hoping to make by demonstrating that their labor is vital and must be paid accordingly.
Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir is among the women taking part in the "kvennafrí," or "women's day off," and told reporters she expects women in her cabinet to strike as well, as organizers push to close Iceland's gender pay gap and end gender-based violence.
While Iceland has been recognized for 14 straight years as having the smallest gap in gender equality among the countries in the World Economic Forum's annual rankings, strike organizer Freyja Steingrímsdóttir toldThe Guardian it is hardly an "equality paradise," and women are demanding greater action from the government to ensure true parity.
On average, Icelandic women still earn about 10% less than men, and as much as 21% less in some professions. Forty percent of women report experiencing gender-based violence.
"An 'equality paradise' should not have a 21% wage gap and 40% of women experiencing gender-based or sexual violence in their lifetime," said Steingrímsdóttir, communications director for the Icelandic Federation for Public Workers. "That's not what women around the world are striving for."
Taking place 48 years after the last full-day women's strike, in which 25,000 people rallied in Reykjavík and 90% of women staged a work stoppage affecting paid and unpaid labor, this year's protest has adopted the slogan, "Kallarðu þetta jafnrétti?" or "You call this equality?"
Icelandic President Gudni Th. Johannesson expressed his support for the strike, saying women's "activism for equality has changed Icelandic society for the better and continues to do so today."
The country's trade unions—which count 90% of Icelandic workers as members—are key organizers of the action and are calling on women and nonbinary workers to join the strike.
The 1975 action was tied to passage of an equal rights law the following year and the election of the country's first female president—the first woman to be democratically elected president in any country—in 1980. Other successes have followed in recent years, such as the passage of a law that requires some companies to prove they're paying people of different genders equally for equal work.
Former Climate Minister Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir toldThe Guardian that men continue to fail to take responsibility for domestic labor, leaving unpaid work such as childcare to women who are also attempting to succeed in the workplace.
"If you look at it economically women seem to be punished for taking these extra burdens, which is not righteous," Halldórsdóttir told the outlet. "It's something that we need to look into and need to change."
Organizers are calling for the wages of workers in female-dominated professions to be made public and for the federal government to take greater action against gender-based violence, ensuring perpetrators are held accountable. One 2018 University of Iceland study found that only 12% of survivors of sexual assault press charges, and those who do have their cases dismissed nearly 75% of the time. Women told researchers they feared the "shame, guilt, and condemnation" that would come with having their cases tried in the justice system.
"We are now trying to connect the dots, saying that violence against women and undervalued work of women in the labor market are two sides of the same coin and have an effect on each other," Drífa Snædal, spokesperson for Stígamót, an anti-sexual violence group, told The Guardian.
Kate Jarman, a director of corporate affairs at a National Health Service hospital in the United Kingdom, said a similar women's strike in the U.K. would force numerous workplaces with majority-female staff to "recognize our worth."
The Left in the European Parliament also expressed support for the action.
"Solidarity with the strikers," the progressive political party said.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular