A MEANINGFUL DIVIDE
The gender wage gap in the U.S. hasn't budged much in
two decades.
Natalia Young
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy, who hoped it would address "the unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job."
And yet, equal pay across the sexes is still far from a reality.
Since 1979, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics started comparing full-time workers' earnings by sex nationally, there's been a 34 percent increase in the women's-to-men's earnings ratio.
Most of that growth occurred by 2003, when women made 79 cents per a man's dollar.
the amount women earned for every $1 earned by men in 2023
83.6 cents
"Women consistently earn less than men, and the gap is wider for most women of color."
The Center for American Progress
The gender pay gap is complicated, and its root causes are interconnected. Some factors, such as workplace discrimination and pressures to focus on responsibilities at home, are difficult to measure.
Other factors, such as differences in occupational distribution, are quantifiable.
A new study from Columbia Business School shows that women are more likely to prioritize attributes like flexibility and job stability, while men tend to select higher paying roles.
“Whether the job helps others and whether it's useful for society — that’s the biggest difference between males and females. Females find those attributes much more important.”
Stephan Meier
Columbia Business School
Women’s median weekly earnings in 2023 ranged from $775 in Mississippi to $1,726 in Washington, D.C. In over 20 states, women earned more than $1,000 per week.
For men, earnings were consistently higher — ranging from $921 in Mississippi to $1,993 in D.C., with nearly all states reporting male weekly earnings above $1,000.
California has the smallest wage gap, with women earning 89.9% of men’s pay, while Louisiana has the largest gap at 73.7%.
State differences reflect variations in industries, occupations and demographics. Keep in mind, state data has larger margins of error than national figures.
A wage gap isn’t just a paycheck issue — it’s a matter of economic security and equality. Closing the gender wage gap specifically could lift millions of women and families out of financial insecurity. While the greatest positive impact would be on women of color, LGBTQ+ women, and others facing overlapping barriers, it would help other women too — a tide lifting all boats, regardless of gender. Earnings data may fluctuate year to year, but real progress won’t happen without intentional efforts, from the small business to federal government levels, to address the root causes that perpetuate these disparities.