Gender pay gap in the United States

Statistics

Women's median yearly earnings (which is used by the Census Bureau to calculate its gap includes bonuses, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses weekly earnings which does not) relative to men's rose rapidly from 1980 to 1990 (from 60.2% to 71.6%), and less rapidly from 1990 to 2000 (from 71.6% to 73.7%) and from 2000 to 2009 (from 73.7% to 77.0%).

By state

In 2007, women's earnings were lower than men's earnings in all states and the District of Columbia according to the Income, Earnings, and Poverty Data From the 2007 American Community Survey by the Census Bureau. The national female-to-male earnings ratio was 77.5%. In the South, five states (Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Texas) and the District of Columbia had ratios higher than the national ratio, as did three states in the West (California, Arizona, and Colorado). Two states in the Northeast (Vermont and New York) had ratios higher than the national ratio. There were no states in the Midwest that had ratios higher than the national ratio. As a result, women's earnings were closer to men's in more states in the South and the West than in the Northeast and the Midwest.

According to an analysis of Census Bureau data released by Reach Advisors in 2008, single childless women between ages 22 and 30 were earning more than their male counterparts in most United States cities, with incomes that were 8% greater than males on average. This shift is driven by the growing ranks of women who attend colleges and move on to high-earning jobs.

By industry and occupation

Women's median weekly earnings were lower than men's median weekly earnings in all industries in 2009. The industry with the largest gender pay gap was financial activities. Median weekly earnings of women employed in financial activities were 70.5% of men's median weekly earnings in that industry. Construction was the industry with the smallest gender pay gap, with women earning 92.2% of what men earned.

In 2009, women's weekly median earnings were higher than men's in only four of the 108 occupations for which sufficient data were available to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The four occupations with higher weekly median earnings for women than men were "Other life, physical, and social science technicians" (102.4%), "bakers" (104.0%), "teacher assistants" (104.6%), and "dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers" (111.1%). The four largest gender wage gaps were found in well-paying occupations such as "Physicians and surgeons" (64.2%), "securities, commodities and financial services sales agents" (64.5%), "financial managers" (66.6%), and "other business operations specialists" (66.9%).

Men's and fathers' rights activist Warren Farrell stated (based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data of 2003) that there were at least 39 jobs where women earned at least 5% more than men. He stated the higher pay for women over men ranged from a high of 43% higher pay for female sales engineers over their male counterparts, to a 5% higher pay for female advertising and promotions managers over their male counterparts. The BLS report Highlights in Women's Earnings in 2003 showed that there were only two occupations in 2003 where women's median weekly earnings exceeded men's. The two occupations were "Packers and packagers, hand" (101.4%) and "Health diagnosing and treating practitioner support technicians" (100.5%).

In 2009 Bloomberg News reported that the sixteen women heading companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index averaged earnings of $14.2 million in their latest fiscal years, 43 percent more than the male average. Bloomberg News also found that of the people who were S&P 500 CEOs in 2008, women got a 19 percent raise in 2009 while men took a 5 percent cut.

Several studies of women in the legal profession reveal persistent gaps in partnership numbers at major American Law Firms. Despite the fact that women have graduated from law schools in equal numbers for over twenty years, only 16–19% of law firm partners are women.

On August 26, 2016 USAtoday reported that the Hollywood gender pay gap is wider than that for average working women and that it is worse for older women stars.

By education

While greater education increases women's overall earnings, education does not close the gender pay gap. Women earn less than men at all educational levels and the gender pay gap widens for persons with advanced degrees compared to people with high school education. In 2006, female high school graduates earned 69 percent of what their male counterparts earned ($29,410 for women, $42,466 for men), but women's earnings dropped to 66 percent of men's for those with advanced bachelor's degrees or more ($59,052 for women, $88,843 for men).

By age

The earnings difference between women and men varies with age, with younger women more closely approaching pay equity than older women.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, in 2013, female full-time workers had median weekly earnings of $706, compared to men's median weekly earnings of $860. Women aged 35 years and older earned 74 to 80% of the earnings of their male counterparts. Among younger workers, the earning differences between women and men were smaller, with women aged 16 to 24 earning 88.3% of men's earnings in the same age group ($423 and $479, respectively).

According to Andrew Beveridge, a Professor of Sociology at Queens College, between 2000 and 2005, young women in their twenties earned more than their male counterparts in some large urban centers, including Dallas (120%), New York (117%), Chicago, Boston, and Minneapolis. A major reason for this is that women have been graduating from college in larger numbers than men, and that many of those women seem to be gravitating toward major urban areas. In 2005, 53% of women in their 20s working in New York were college graduates, compared with only 38% of men of that age. Nationwide, the wages of that group of women averaged 89% of the average full-time pay for men between 2000 and 2005.

By race

In the U.S., using median hourly earnings statistics (not controlling for job type differences) the gender pay gap is largest for Latina women (58%) and second-largest for Black women (65%), while white women have a pay gap of 82%. However, Asian women earn 87% as much as white men, making them the group of women with the smallest pay gap.

The average woman is expected to earn $430,480 less than the average white man over a lifetime. Native American women can expect to earn $883,040 less, Black women earn $877,480 less, and Latina women earn $1,007,080 less over a lifetime. Asian American women's lifetime pay deficit is $365,440.

Explaining the gender pay gap

Any given raw wage gap can be decomposed into an explained part, due to differences in characteristics such as education, hours worked, work experience, and occupation, and/or an unexplained part, which is typically attributed to discrimination. This may be further explained when America takes into account that men are more likely to negotiate for higher pay. According to a study by Carnegie Mellon, when negotiating pay, 83% of men negotiated for a higher wage compared to the 58% of women who asked for more. Researchers say that women who do request either a raise or a higher starting salary are more likely than men to be penalized for those actions. Cornell University economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn stated that while the overall size of the wage gap has decreased somewhat over time, the proportion of the gap that is unexplained by human capital variables is increasing.

Using Current Population Survey (CPS) data for 1979 and 1995 and controlling for education, experience, personal characteristics, parental status, city and region, occupation, industry, government employment, and part-time status, Yale University economics professor Joseph G. Altonji and the United States Secretary of Commerce Rebecca M. Blank found that only about 27% of the gender wage gap in each year is explained by differences in such characteristics.

A study of graduates of the University of Michigan Law School between 1972 and 1975 examined the gender wage gap while matching men and women for possible explanatory factors such as occupation, age, experience, education, time in the workforce, childcare, average hours worked, grades while in college, and other factors. After accounting for all that, women were paid 81.5% of what men "with similar demographic characteristics, family situations, work hours, and work experience" were paid.

Similarly, a comprehensive study by the staff of the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the gender wage gap can only be partially explained by human capital factors and "work patterns." The GAO study, released in 2003, was based on data from 1983 through 2000 from a representative sample of Americans between the ages of 25 and 65. The researchers controlled for "work patterns," including years of work experience, education, and hours of work per year, as well as differences in industry, occupation, race, marital status, and job tenure. With controls for these variables in place, the data showed that women earned, on average, 20% less than men during the entire period 1983 to 2000. In a subsequent study, GAO found that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Labor "should better monitor their performance in enforcing anti-discrimination laws."

Using CPS data, U.S. Bureau of Labor economist Stephanie Boraas and College of William & Mary economics professor William R. Rodgers III report that only 39% of the gender pay gap is explained in 1999, controlling for percent female, schooling, experience, region, Metropolitan Statistical Area size, minority status, part-time employment, marital status, union, government employment, and industry.

Using data from longitudinal studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, researchers Judy Goldberg Dey and Catherine Hill analyzed some 9,000 college graduates from 1992–93 and more than 10,000 from 1999–2000. The researchers controlled for a multitude of variables, including: occupation, industry, hours worked per week, workplace flexibility, ability to telecommute, whether employee worked multiple jobs, months at employer, marital status, whether employee had children, and whether employee volunteered in the past year. The study found that wage inequities start early and worsen over time. "The portion of the pay gap that remains unexplained after all other factors are taken into account is 5 percent one year after graduation and 12 percent 10 years after graduation. These unexplained gaps are evidence of discrimination, which remains a serious problem for women in the work force."

Economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn took a set of human capital variables such as education, labor market experience, and race into account and additionally controlled for occupation, industry, and unionism. While the gender wage gap was considerably smaller when all variables were taken into account, a substantial portion of the pay gap (12%) remained unexplained.

A study by John McDowell, Larry Singell and James Ziliak investigated faculty promotion on the economics profession and found that, controlling for quality of PhD training, publishing productivity, major field of specialization, current placement in a distinguished department, age and post-PhD experience, female economists were still significantly less likely to be promoted from assistant to associate and from associate to full professor—although there was also some evidence that women's promotion opportunities from associate to full professor improved in the 1980s.

Economist June O'Neill, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, found an unexplained pay gap of 8% after controlling for experience, education, and number of years on the job. Furthermore, O'Neill found that among young people who have never had a child, women's earnings approach 98 percent of men's.

In a stance rejecting discrimination, a 2009 study for the Department of Labour by the CONSAD Research Corporation concluded, "it is not possible now, and doubtless will never be possible, to determine reliably whether any portion of the observed gender wage gap is not attributable to factors that compensate women and men differently on socially acceptable bases, and hence can confidently be attributed to overt discrimination against women." and continued "In addition, at a practical level, the complex combination of factors that collectively determine the wages paid to different individuals makes the formulation of policy that will reliably redress any overt discrimination that does exist a task that is, at least, daunting and, more likely, unachievable. The conclusion was based largely on a study by Eric Solberg & Teresa Laughlin (1995), who found that "occupational selection is the primary determinant of the gender wage gap" (as opposed to discrimination) because "any measure of earnings that excludes fringe benefits may produce misleading results as to the existence magnitude, consequence, and source of market discrimination." They found that the average wage rate of females was only 87.4% of the average wage rate of males; whereas, when earnings were measured by their index of total compensation (including fringe benefits), the average value of the index for females was 96.4% of the average value for males.

A 2010 study by Catalyst, a nonprofit that works to expand opportunities for women in business, of male and female MBA graduates found that after controlling for career aspirations, parental status, years of experience, industry, and other variables, male graduates are more likely to be assigned jobs of higher rank and responsibility and earn, on average, $4,600 more than women in their first post-MBA jobs.

Economy

An October 2012 study by the American Association of University Women found that over the course of a 35-year career, an American woman with a college degree will make about $1.2 million less than a man with the same education. Therefore, closing the pay gap by raising women's wages would have a stimulus effect that would grow the U.S. economy by at least 3% to 4%. In contrast, the $800 billion economic stimulus bill passed by Congress in 2009 is estimated to have grown the GDP by less than 1.5%. Women who are paid more will likely spend that money to support themselves and their families, because so many women live in poverty. Women currently make up 70 percent of Medicaid recipients and 80 percent of welfare recipients. Increasing women's workplace participation from its present rate of 76% to 84%, as it is in Sweden, the U.S. could add 5.1 million women to the workforce, again, 3% to 4% of the size of the U.S. economy.

Pensions

According to a report by the United States Congress Joint Economic Committee, the gender pay gap jeopardizes women's retirement security. Of the multiple sources of income Americans rely on later in life, many are directly linked to a worker's earnings over his or her career. These include Social Security benefits, based on lifetime earnings, and defined benefit pension distributions that are typically calculated using a formula based on a worker's tenure and salary during peak-earnings years. The persistent gender pay gap leaves women with less income from these sources than men. For example, older women's Social Security benefits are 71% of older men's benefits ($11,057 for women versus $15,557 for men in 2009). Incomes from public and private pensions based on women's own work were just 60% and 48% of men's pension incomes, respectively.

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

In 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. This law extended the statute of limitations on cases where a worker found that they were receiving discriminatory pay, allowing them to sue and receive recompense more than six months after they received the pay. This was seen as a victory for those fighting against the gender wage gap, because if a woman at the end of her career found that she had been making less money than men who were doing the same work, she now had more than six months from the date of her last pay check to file a claim and possibly receive the wages that were denied.

Popular culture reactions

To help raise awareness on the pay gap, a pop-up store named "76 is Less Than 100" operated during the month of April 2015 in the Garfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The nonprofit store, which sells arts and crafts designed by women, charges men full price while women get a 24% discount to reflect the pay gap between men and women in Pennsylvania. The operators of the store plan to operate a similar store in Fall 2015 in New Orleans titled "66 is Less Than 100", to reflect the pay gap in Louisiana. The store made national headlines in the wake of Patricia Arquette referencing the pay gap at the 87th Academy Awards two months before.

Public figure reactions

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, is among the leading advocates of closing the gender pay gap. In her book, Lean In, she urges professional women to "lean in" to their careers, negotiate for higher salaries to decrease the pay gap, and to find supportive partners who will actively help raise children to help lessen the motherhood penalty. She is also the founder of LeanIn.Org, which has run national social media campaigns using the hashtags #BanBossy and #LeanInTogether.

Oscar-winning American actress Jennifer Lawrence has also brought international attention to the gender pay gap with an essay in fellow pay gap advocate Lena Dunham's Lenny Letter. In her essay, she addresses the fact that she was paid less than her American Hustle co-stars, which was made public by the Sony hacking scandal. She largely blamed herself for having "failed as a negotiator" and being focused on being liked. The essay highlighted that the gender pay gap exists for every industry and all across Hollywood.

However, these public reactions have been criticized for embodying white feminism because they do not take into account intersectionality and the increased obstacles that women of color face. Intersectional feminists often find that white feminists attempt to speak for all women when relaying their experiences of the gender pay gap, when in reality their problems are not relatable to women of color who face an additional barrier of racism.