Who Makes More Money Men Or Women?

The gender gap in pay has remained relatively stable in the United states of america over the past 15 years or so. In 2020, women earned 84% of what men earned, according to a Pew Research Center assay of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. Based on this judge, information technology would have an extra 42 days of work for women to earn what men did in 2020.

As has been the case in contempo decades, the 2020 wage gap was smaller for workers ages 25 to 34 than for all workers sixteen and older. Women ages 25 to 34 earned 93 cents for every dollar a homo in the aforementioned historic period group earned on boilerplate. In 1980, women ages 25 to 34 earned 33 cents less than their male counterparts, compared with vii cents in 2020. The estimated sixteen-cent gender pay gap among all workers in 2020 was down from 36 cents in 1980.

Gender pay gap in U.S. has remained stable in recent years, but is narrower among young workers

The gender pay gap measures the difference in median hourly earnings between men and women who work total- or part-time in the U.S. Historically, men have earned more on average than women, but the gap has slowly closed over time. The most contempo data is from 2020 Current Population Survey Merged Outgoing Rotation Group (MORG) files. To understand how we calculate the gender pay gap, run into our 2013 post, "How Pew Inquiry Center measured the gender pay gap."

The U.South. Census Agency has also analyzed the gender pay gap, though its assay looks only at total-fourth dimension workers (as opposed to full- and part-time workers). In 2019, full-time, year-circular working women earned 82% of what their male person counterparts earned, according to the Census Bureau's most contempo analysis.

Why does a gender pay gap still persist?

Much of this gap has been explained past measurable factors such equally educational attainment, occupational segregation and work experience. The narrowing of the gap is owing in large part to gains women take made in each of these dimensions.

Even though women have increased their presence in higher-paying jobs traditionally dominated by men, such as professional and managerial positions, women as a whole continue to be overrepresented in lower-paying occupations relative to their share of the workforce. This may contribute to gender differences in pay.

In 2017, roughly four-in-ten working women said they experienced gender discrimination at work

Other factors that are hard to measure, including gender bigotry, may also contribute to the ongoing wage discrepancy. In a 2017 Pew Research Eye survey, nearly four-in-ten working women (42%) said they had experienced gender discrimination at work, compared with most two-in-ten men (22%). Ane of the most commonly reported forms of discrimination focused on earnings inequality. One-in-iv employed women said they had earned less than a homo who was doing the aforementioned job; just 5% of men said they had earned less than a woman doing the same job.

Motherhood tin also lead to interruptions in women'south career paths and have an bear on on long-term earnings. Our 2016 survey of workers who had taken parental, family unit or medical leave in the two years prior to the survey found that mothers typically have more time off than fathers after birth or adoption. The median length of get out among mothers later the birth or adoption of their child was 11 weeks, compared with one week for fathers. About half (47%) of mothers who took time off from piece of work in the two years afterwards birth or adoption took off 12 weeks or more.

Mothers were also nearly twice as likely as fathers to say taking time off had a negative impact on their job or career. Among those who took go out from work in the 2 years following the birth or adoption of their child, 25% of women said this had a negative impact at work, compared with 13% of men.

Mothers in the U.S. are more likely than fathers to say they have needed to reduce their work hours or felt like they couldn't give 100% at work

Once women get mothers, juggling family caregiving responsibilities and work can be a claiming. Mothers, fifty-fifty those who are married and work total time, tend to carry a larger load at home than fathers when it comes to these tasks. In a 2019 survey, mothers with children younger than xviii were more than likely than fathers to say they needed to reduce their piece of work hours, felt like they couldn't give full attempt at work and turned down a promotion considering they were balancing work and parenting responsibilities. Roughly one-in-five mothers said they had been passed over for an important assignment or a promotion at work, while 27% said they had been treated as if they weren't committed to their work.

Overall, Americans see equal pay as key to gender equality. In a 2020 survey, 45% of those who said information technology'southward important for women to have equal rights with men volunteered equal pay as a specific example of what a club with gender equality might look like. This response trumped other items such as women not existence discriminated confronting for their gender or women being equally represented in leadership positions.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on March 22, 2019. Former Pew Inquiry Center staff Nikki Graf and Eileen Patten contributed to this analysis.