The persistence of the gender wage gap is shown by data released by the Census Bureau on Sept. 10, 2019. In 2018, the median salaries for all full-time, year-round workers showed women earning 81.6 cents for every dollar men earned, statistically the same gap as in 2017.  The median salaries of all full-time, year-round workers showed women earning $45,097 compared to $55,291 for men in 2018.  (The U.S. Census Bureau adjusted their pay data methodology for this year (2018 data) changing the reported gap, but this does not reflect a real change in America. The gap is not statistically different from last year.)

The wage gaps continue to be greater for women of color, whose wages show little change compared to those of white men between 2017 and 2018. African American women earned just 62 cents and Hispanic women earned just 54 cents for every dollar white men earned, compared to 61 and 53 cents respectively in 2017. Asian American women earned 90 cents and white women 79 cents for every dollar white men earned, compared to 85 and 77 cents respectively in 2017.

A 2016 guide to the gender wage gap shows the gap increasing as women earn more. The loss in lifetime earnings is $530,000 for the average woman and $800,000 for college-educated women. About 30 percent of the narrowing of the wage gap since 1979 has been caused by the decline in men’s wages. The National Committee on Pay Equity's The Wage Gap Over Time shows how little the wage gap has changed in this century.

A new study from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research Still a Man’s Labor Market: The Slowly Narrowing Gender Wage Gap compares the wages of women and men and finds women earning just 49 percent of what men earn. Using a longitudinal data set, Economists Heidi Hartmann and Stephen Rose found that during the years 2001 to 2015, women faced a 51 percent wage gap. Also, while the gender wage gap has narrowed since 1968, progress has been slow in the last 15 years.

Other main findings in the study:

• Women who take time out of the labor force pay a high price that is increasing
• Paid leave and affordable child care are critical to women joining the labor force and narrowing the gender wage gap
• Strengthening enforcement of Title IX and EEO policies also is crucial to narrowing the gender wage gap.

The study was released Nov. 28, 2018. Earlier 15-year studies found that women earned just 19 percent and 38 percent of what men earned, showing some progress in narrowing the wage gap.

Report:

NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON PAY EQUITY: HISTORY & IMPACT

The Pay Equity for All Act (H.R.6030), introduced by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC-At-Large) on Sept. 14, 2016, amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to prohibit employers from seeking or requiring previous wage information or salary history from job applicants.

The gender wage gap figure used by the National Committee on Pay Equity has been coming under fire as being politically motivated, at best, and downright inaccurate, at worst.  

NCPE’s wage gap figure, showing that women earn 79.6 cents for every dollar men earn, is based on the most recent Census data of the median salaries of all full-time, year-round workers in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), using a different data set and calculating the wage gap based on weekly salaries, shows women earning 82 cents for every dollar men earn. And a multitude of reports and articles have sliced and diced pay data—by occupation, locality, age—to show a variety of gender wage gaps.

The Census data is used by NCPE because it includes bonuses, not included in the BLS data, and its data has been available for a longer period of time than the BLS data. (See http://www.pay-equity.org/info-time.html for gender wage gap figures since 1960.)  

When The Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler criticized the Census figure on April 9, 2014, he was quickly rebutted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). IWPR has updated its talking points on the gender wage gap, an important statement that validates the 80 cent figure.

NCPE’s gender wage gap figure is an aggregate. It does not show men and women doing the same work or in the same jobs. But it does show changes over time, with progress in narrowing the gap in the 1990s and little change in this century. In The Status of Women in the States: 2015--Employment and Earnings the IWPR projects that if current trends continue, the wage gap will remain until 2058 and won’t close until the next century in some states.

See five myths about America’s gender wage gap based on the report The Power of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in the United States from the McKinsey Global Institute.

A 2016 briefing paper If Current Trends Continue, Hispanic Women Will Wait 232 Years for Equal Pay; Black Women Will Wait 108 Years from IWPR finds that, if current trends continue, Hispanic women will wait 232 years for equal pay. The exceptionally slow pace of progress for Hispanic women is nearly two centuries behind when white women should expect to see equal pay with white men (2056). African American women are not projected see equal pay until 2124. Previous IWPR analysis found that women overall will not see equal pay until 2059. 

IWPR analyzed earnings growth over the last decade and found that progress for Hispanic women has moved backward: between 2004 and 2014, Hispanic women’s real median annual earnings for full-time, year-round work declined by 4.5 percent—nearly three times as much as women’s earnings overall (1.6 percent): Hispanic Women Are Among Those Women Who Saw the Largest Declines in Wages over the Last Decade. These trends varied widely by state, with only four states—California, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming—and the District of Columbia seeing wage increases among Hispanic women.

A 2016 report from the Economic Policy Institute, Black-white wage gaps expand with rising wage inequality, also found rising wage gaps between African American and white workers.

$ In “The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations,” January 2016, Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn found that the largest factor in the persistent wage gap is the dearth of women in specific jobs and industries, but they also found that “Current research continues to find evidence of a motherhood penalty for women and of a marriage premium for men.” The researchers note that discrimination, too, can play a role. When it comes to hiring and promotions, concerns that women will (or should) spend more time away from the office, or will somehow underperform can create a labor market in which it’s difficult for women to achieve to the most advanced and highly paid positions.

$ The March 2016 report from Third Way, “A Dollar Short: What’s Holding Women Back from Equal Pay?” examines the pay gap through hourly wages, age differences, occupational categories, and evidence of lingering bias, and shows that women’s work is not valued as highly as men’s. The bottom line: “Achieving gender pay parity will require both determination and creativity among policymakers, employers, workers, and educators alike.”

$ See New York Times, March 18, 2016 for an overall view of recent research.