Efforts to close the wage gap must address the varying drivers of it as well as the multitude of biases that hold women—particularly women of color, LGBTQ women, and women with other diverse identities—and their families back. 2 Center for American Progress | Women of Color and the Gender Wage Gap For women of color, the explained factors that contribute to the wage gap are often dif-ferent that those of white women due to the fact that women of color frequently work in lower-paying jobs, work fewer hours, and experience more substantial caregiving burdens. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The cumulative earnings gap reported compares monthly labor force totals for all four fiscal quarters of 2019 and BLS median usual weekly earnings of full-time working women and men of all races from all four fiscal quarters of 2019. In reality, the 77-cent figure does capture some discrimination, but it also reflects gender differences in jobs, hours worked, years of experience, educational attainment, or personal choices that people make about their careers. Jobs in finance are among those with the largest gender wage gaps.A woman who works as a securities or commodities broker, for example, makes less than 55 … Some critics use this as fuel for their argument that the wage gap only exists because women scale back their work hours to care for their families. Ibid. As the bill has stalled in the Senate, the liberal Center for American Progress said women have seen the earnings gap increase by $546 billion, since the House passed the novel legislation. That is certainly nothing to scoff at, but it pales in comparison to the occupations with the worst wage gap for women: property, real estate, and community association managers. Collective bargaining reduces gender and racial pay gaps for several reasons. 3 Center for American Progress | Hours Flexibility and the Gender Gap in Pay This report also demonstrates that of the occupational groups studied, those in the technician group who work fewer than 40 hours per week are the least likely to have a wage penalty among both men and women; the food, operator, and sales groups Some of the controversy around wage-gap estimates and figures is at least partly due to the fact that, like many statistics, the exact figure changes slightly depending on the data source used. Without updated and comprehensive equal pay reform, the gender wage gap has only closed by 4 cents in more than a decade. Sarah Jane Glynn is Associate Director for Women’s Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress. These factors constrain the choices that lead them to work and earn less. Despite substantial gains made in the 1980s, strides toward gender equality in the workplace have stalled. Women stand to miss out on some serious money thanks to the gender wage gap. One of the main issues being addressed in the Shriver report is the gender wage gap. The Center for American Progress has proposed moving toward this broader type of collective bargaining in the private sector. Gender, Pay Equity, Race & Ethnicity TOPICS: Gender, Pay Equity, Race & Ethnicity. Other factors, meanwhile, help narrow the gap between women’s and men’s earnings. And it’s all of these factors coming together—in the same way that they do in real life—that gives the 77-cent comparison meaning. leadership and concerted action. The gender wage gap: it's a figure most people are familiar with. Cornell economists Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn have managed to quantify what percentage of the pay gap between men and women is due to aspects we cannot easily measure—aspects that go beyond things such as occupation, educational attainment, and years of experience. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act (EPA) into law, making it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who perform equal work. The career wage gap looks at how the current annual gender wage gap accumulates over a 40-year period. Native American women and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander women saw their pay gaps close slightly from $0.57 and $0.61 in 2018, to $0.60 and $0.63, respectively, in 2019. Center for American Progress, “Wage Gap by the Numbers,” January 6, 2009, available at, See Paycheck Fairness Act, H.R. Because women and communities of color are disproportionately represented in lower-wage groups, collectively bargained higher wages for low- and middle-income workers decrease pay gaps. Variability in work experience also plays a role in wages, as some women can fall behind in career development more than men due to maternity leave or child care. This calculation is the ratio of median annual earnings for women working full time, year round to … Center for American Progress Action Fund have termed the “career wage gap.” The more commonly known gender wage gap is the annual difference in median wages between men and women who are employed full-time. Additionally, list at least one piece of legislation that has been useful in reducing the potency of the gender wage gap. Women can't win. [online] Center for American Progress. Calculating it this way allows experts to capture the multitude of factors driving the gender wage gap, which include but are not limited to: These are just some of the major drivers of the gender wage gap. Figures are not adjusted for inflation and earnings are in 2018 dollars. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/womens-databook/2019/home.htm, https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/cps-pinc/pinc-05.html, https://nwlc.org/resources/equal-pay-for-asian-pacific-islander-women/, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2019/08/22/473775/racism-sexism-combine-shortchange-working-black-women/, https://www.ilga-europe.org/sites/default/files/before_and_after_-_gender_transitions_human_capital_and_workplace.pdf, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2013/04/09/59471/unequal-pay-day-for-immigrant-women/, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2020/03/02/480920/pay-data-matter-fight-equal-pay/, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2020/03/02/481102/measure-matters-connecting-dots-among-comprehensive-data-collection-civil-rights-enforcement-equality/, https://www.dol.gov/wb/resources/occupational_segregation_and_wage_gap.pdf, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2019/10/10/475625/rhetoric-vs-reality-not-paid-leave-proposals-equal/, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2017/01/05/295908/paid-sick-days-and-paid-family-and-medical-leave-are-not-job-killers/, https://nwlc.org/resources/part-time-workers-are-paid-less-have-less-access-to-benefits-and-most-are-women/, https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/epa.cfm, https://equitablegrowth.org/research-paper/gender-wage-inequality/, https://www.epi.org/blog/unions-help-narrow-the-gender-wage-gap/, https://equitablegrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/080718-WP-intersectionality-labor-market.pdf, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/wkyeng_01172020.pdf, https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/LNU02500002, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2009/01/06/5460/wage-gap-by-the-numbers/, https://iwpr.org/publications/pay-equity-projection-race-ethnicity-2019/, https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7/text, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2018/08/30/457309/uneven-expansion-access-paid-sick-days/, gro.ssergorpnacirema@regrebeesc, gro.ssergorpnacirema@adarapl, Meeting Investor Demand for Environmental, Social and Governance Information, Stateside Chat: Working Toward an Equitable and Just Climate Future, STATEMENT: CAP on Mississippi’s Unconstitutional Ban on Transgender Participation in School-Sponsored Sports, EVENT ADVISORY: SEC Acting Chair Allison Herren Lee To Speak on Environmental, Social, and Governance Regulations, STATEMENT: CAP Urges for New TPS Designation and Humanitarian Response to Unrest in Haiti, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Women in the labor force: a databook” (Washington: U.S. Department of Labor, 2018), available at. policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all While women’s and men’s earnings may shift slightly each year with each new batch of Census Bureau data, the gender wage gap will not close anytime soon without concerted action. Robin Bleiweis is a research associate for Women’s Economic Security for the Women’s Initiative at the Center for American Progress. Although there has been some progress toward closing the gender wage gap in the United States since the passage of laws, the results haven't been equally felt by all women. The world-wide gender gap for work, all in one graph. However, a great deal of contention sur-rounds statistics measuring and quantifying the gender wage gap, and this confusion is not entirely without … But among the federal workforce, the gap has fallen significantly, according to a new report from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Access to quality, affordable child-care then seems imperative to reduce the gender wage gap. The Center for American Progress is an independent nonpartisan These are the 10 jobs with the biggest gender wage gaps: East Asia has more women working then men, but some parts of the world, the gap remains high. The truth is, the choices women (and … The confusion around wage-gap calculations is further fueled when people misspeak about the nature of the number, what it reflects, and to which groups of workers it refers. Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong This issue brief explains how the wage gap is calculated, why the numbers are not all the same, and what causes are driving the most commonly cited 77-cent figure. Center for American Progress Tweet. It’s calculated by dividing the median earnings of full-time, year-round, working women by the median earnings of full-time, year-round, working men, all rounded to the nearest $100. Visit PayScale to research Center For American Progress salaries, bonuses, reviews, benefits, and more! In May of last year, President Obama signed a … Interestingly, only four occupations—retail salespersons, first-line supervisors and managers of retail stores, cooks, and all other managers—appear in both genders’ top 20 most common occupations. 1 Center for American Progress | Explaining the Gender Wage Gap Explaining the Gender Wage Gap By Sarah Jane Glynn May 19, 2014 The most commonly cited statistic for the gender wage gap asserts that women earn only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. And what does it mean for women and their families? Author’s analysis uses an average of the monthly workforce totals for women overall to determine how much more an individual woman would have earned. This research examines how gender pay gaps have changed in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Australia since our initial study in 2016.The 2019 study offers new gender pay gap data on Canada, the Netherlands, and Singapore and leverages hundreds of thousands … In three of those industries, women make less than 80 cents for every dollar a man earns, or worse than the average national wage gap, according to a 2018 analysis by the Center for American Progress analysis. Define the gender wage gap in your own words. Should we continue to progress at this hindered rate, we can expect the global wage gap to close in 118 years, in the year 2133. (see Figure 1), The wage gaps for each group are calculated based on median earnings data from the U.S. Census Bureau and thus do not necessarily represent each individual woman’s personal experience. To begin to close the gender wage gap, women need updated comprehensive equal pay legislation, such as the Paycheck Fairness Act,23 that will strengthen existing protections and further combat discriminatory practices. post A look at the motherhood wage gap on Mother’s Equal Pay Day. Fleming, S. S. (2015). The lost wages for women over this period of work add up significantly no matter what the woman’s level of … Explaining the Gender Wage Gap - Center for American Progress. This has led to critics charging that the 77-cent figure is a willful manipulation of truth that does not accurately reflect gender discrimination in the workplace. Women are much more likely than men to be clustered in just a few occupations, with nearly half of all working women—44.4 percent—employed in just 20 occupations, including secretaries and administrative assistants, registered nurses, and school teachers. 2 Experts have calculated this gap in a multitude of ways, but the varying calculations point to a … But in reality, there are several factors that lead women to traditionally female-dominated roles, including the gendered socialization that trains girls from childhood to embody the sorts of traits that translate well into traditionally feminine jobs centered on nurturing, service, and supporting other people in their jobs. Our aim is not just to change The left-leaning Center for American Progress responded with a list of seven ways to reduce the gender wage gap. How The Gender Wage Gap Differs By Occupation - Center For American Progress. Outcomes look marginally different, for example, depending on whether weekly or annual earnings are compared. For women of color, this wage gap is even worse as black, Native American and Latina women earn 62 cents, 57 cents and 54 cents for every dollar a … But that belief rests upon a very abstract take on reality. The top 10 occupations for women all pay men more on average, including secretaries and administrative assistants, registered nurses, teachers, and cashiers. Second, collective bargaining c… From the Center for American Progress webpage and the AAUW webpage, what did you learn about the gender wage gap? Political Organization. The most commonly cited statistic for the gender wage gap asserts that women earn only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. Today, a pay gap persists, as women earn 77 cents to … Continue reading “The Gender Pay Gap” by: Center for American Progress: It thus First, it directly raises wages for workers who are covered by union contracts—especially for lower- and middle-income workers. Parents of older children also have a caring time gap, though it is smaller—about 22 minutes per day. The average salary for Center For American Progress employees is $61,800 per year. Some women will always prefer reducing their schedules or staying at home with their kids. Some women will always prefer reducing their schedules or staying at home with their kids. Much more data—disaggregated by sex, race and ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, and more factors—are needed to understand precisely where pay disparities exist and where efforts must be targeted.7. Because so few women have access to paid maternity leave, and because the biological realities of childbirth mean that most women have no choice but to take time off after having children, mothers end up spending more time out of the labor force than fathers, which further contributes to the gender wage gap. U.S. Census Bureau, “Current Population Survey: PINC-05. Fleming, S. S. (2015). Accessed 29 Oct. 2019. Gender Discrimination Is Already … CAP / Via americanprogress.org There are only two full-time jobs in the U.S. in which women earn the same or 1% more than men: stock clerk and health practitioner tech support. And the wage gap is even higher for women of color, pointing to social factors that go far beyond the choices that women make. However, a great deal of contention surrounds statistics measuring and quantifying the gender wage gap, and this confusion is not entirely without merit. READ: Why Pay Transparency Alone Won't Eliminate the Wage Gap Between Men and Women. 4 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “The Equal Pay Act of 1963,” available at, Frye, “Racism and Sexism Combine to Shortchange Working Black Women.”, Sarah Jane Glynn, “Gender wage inequality” (Washington: Washington Center for Equitable Growth, 2018), available at, Elise Gould and Celine McNicholas, “Unions help narrow the gender wage gap,” Economic Policy Institute Working Economics Blog, April 3, 2017, available at, Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn, “The Gender Pay Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations” (Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2016), available at, Glynn, “Gender wage inequality”; Mark Paul and others, “Returns in the labor market: A nuanced view of penalties at the intersection of race and gender” (Washington: Washington Center for Equitable Growth, 2018), available at, Author’s calculation is based on analysis of median annual earnings of women and men 15 years old and older working full-time, year-round in 2018.