The gender wage gap in the U.S. is closing, but ever so slowly

The gender pay gap in the United States is the narrowest it has ever been, but progress has only inched ahead in the last decade and women still earn less than men across all industries and wage levels, a recent report from the Conference Board’s Committee for Economic Development finds.

Citing 2023 U.S. Census data, the report said women earn 84 cents for every dollar men make, up from 83.7 percent the year prior. But including seasonal and part-time workers, the gap is even larger, with women earning only 78 cents for every dollar made by men. The research paper said that factor is
significant since about one-third of women in the U.S. workforce are employed seasonally or part-time.

“While enormous progress has been made in the last several decades regarding women’s participation in the labor force and representation in high-earning occupations, the gender wage gap has remained largely stagnant,” wrote study authors John Gardner, vice president of public policy at the committee, and Mallory Block, a committee public policy analyst.

Contributing to the lack of progress, women continue to attend college at higher rates than men but remain significantly underrepresented among those receiving STEM bachelor’s degrees required for many of the highest earning careers, they said.

The gap is even larger in industries dominated by women. In health care and social assistance, the industry category employing the largest number of women and also employing a heavy percentage of women, women earn only 69 cents for every dollar paid to men. And the gap gets worse the more money women earn: Among the top 10% of earners women receive 22.6% less pay, the report notes.

“Significant obstacles remain for working women, such as leadership biases which may keep women from obtaining — or pursuing — managerial roles, as well as caregiving responsibilities for working mothers,” the authors point out.

Other highlights from the study:

• Women make up nearly half of the U.S. labor force but represent only 35 percent of workers in the ten highest-paying occupations. While significant progress has been made in women’s representation in these occupations, women remain the minority in nine out of ten of them. The exception is pharmacists, 61 percent of whom are women.
• Immediately following college or graduate school, wages for men and women are largely similar. In these early years, differences in pay are explained by differences in fields of study and occupational choices. Ten years later, differences in pay become significant, with the income gap widening following marriage, when many women take on the role of primary caregiver to young children.
• Among married couples, women’s financial contributions have grown steadily over the last 50 years. In opposite-sex marriages, the share of women who earn as much or significantly more than their husbands has roughly tripled since 1972. Today, just 55 percent of marriages have a husband as a primary or sole breadwinner.

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