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GENDER WAGE GAP PERSISTS IN 2023  
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Elise Gould
March 8, 2024
Economic Policy Institute
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_ March 12 is Equal Pay Day, a reminder that there is still a
significant pay gap between men and women in our country. Women are
paid roughly 22% less than men on average. _

Little to no progress in closing the gender wage gap in three
decades, Economic Policy Institute

 

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 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
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Women are paid less than men as a result of occupational segregation
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devaluation of women’s work, societal norms, and discrimination, all
of which took root well before women entered the labor market
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B shows that women are paid less than men at all parts of the wage
distribution.

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
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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
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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.  

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
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on both gender and race/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. 

_ELISE GOULD (Senior Economist at EPI) joined EPI in 2003. Her
research areas include wages, poverty, inequality, economic mobility
and health care. She is a co-author of The State of Working America,
12th Edition. Gould authored a chapter on health in The State of
Working America 2008/09; co-authored a book on health insurance
coverage in retirement; published in venues such as The Chronicle of
Higher Education, Challenge Magazine, and Tax Notes; and written for
academic journals including Health Economics, Health
Affairs, Journal of Aging and Social Policy, Risk Management &
Insurance Review, Environmental Health Perspectives,
and International Journal of Health Services. Gould has been quoted
by a variety of news sources, including Bloomberg, NPR, The
Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal,
and her opinions have appeared on the op-ed pages of USA
Today and The Detroit News. She has testified before the U.S. House
Committee on Ways and Means, Maryland Senate Finance and House
Economic Matters committees, the New York City Council, and the
District of Columbia Council._

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* Women
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* equal pay
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* Inequality
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