Pay Equity & Discrimination
Women make up nearly half of the workforce, serve as the sole or co-breadwinner in half of American families with children, and earn more college and graduate degrees than men. Despite this, they still earn considerably less than men on average. In 2018, women working full-time, year-round earned just 82 cents for every dollar earned by men — a wage gap of 18%. Yet this figure may understate the real picture: an IWPR analysis spanning 15 years found that women earned just 49% of what men earned.
The Gap Persists Across Nearly Every Occupation
Women, on average, earn less than men in nearly every occupation for which sufficient data exists to calculate an earnings ratio. In middle-skill occupations, jobs mainly done by women pay only 66% of what jobs mainly done by men pay. IWPR's research on sex and race discrimination confirms that outright discrimination in pay, hiring, and promotion remains a significant feature of working life.
When Will Pay Parity Arrive?
IWPR tracks the wage gap over time through regularly updated fact sheets. If progress continues at the same slow pace seen over the past fifty years, women won't reach pay parity until 2059. For women of color, the outlook is far worse:
- Hispanic women would have to wait until 2224
- Black women would have to wait until 2130
IWPR's "Status of Women in the States" project tracks the wage gap by state, race/ethnicity, and age.
Why the Gap Exists
The reasons behind the wage gap are multi-faceted. IWPR's research shows that, regardless of qualification level, jobs predominantly held by women pay less on average than jobs predominantly held by men. While women have made major strides in recent decades by entering fields previously dominated by men, progress in gender integration of the workforce has stalled over the last twenty years. In some industries, like construction, there has been no progress in forty years. This persistent occupational segregation remains a primary driver of the stalled wage gap.
The Economic Cost of Inequality
Persistent pay inequality carries far-reaching economic consequences. A regression analysis of federal data by IWPR found that equal pay would cut poverty among working women and their families by more than half, and add $513 billion to the national economy.
Since 1987, IWPR's research on the gender wage gap and occupational segregation has shaped the national conversation on women's pay, giving policymakers, journalists, and advocates the data they need to inform debate on women's earnings.
