FACTS: WOMEN AND THE WAGE GAP
 The average woman working full time, year round in 2011 lost $10,000 in earnings due to
the wage gap.1 This means that, over the course of her lifetime, this same worker will lose
over $430,000 compared to a male worker.2
 Women working full time are paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men.3 For women
of color, the disparity is much worse. African American women are paid only 64 cents and
Latina women are paid just 55 cents for every dollar paid to non-Hispanic white men.4
 The gender wage gap has improved at a rate of less than half a cent per year since 1963,
the year the Equal Pay Act was passed.5 At this rate, the wage gap will not close for
another four decades.6
 The gender wage gap between men and women who work full time, full year has been
frozen at 77 cents on the dollar for the past decade.7
 Did you know that nearly half of all workers nationwide are forbidden or strongly
discouraged from talking about what they earn?8
 Penalizing employees for discussing pay hurts business productivity. Studies have shown
such policies are associated with “significantly weaker individual task performance” in
the workplace.9 Furthermore, penalizing employees for discussing pay reduces employee
satisfaction and motivation, and thus is costly for businesses.10
 The wage gap persists among women and men with the same levels of education.
 Even when women choose “non-traditional,” higher-paid majors, a wage gap exists.
Women in science, technology, engineering and math are paid 86 percent of what
their male counterparts are paid.11 Female business majors are paid 93 percent of
what male business majors are paid.12
 Among all workers 25 years of age and older with some high school education,
women’s median weekly wages total $388 compared to a total of $486 for men.13
 The wage gap exists across a wide spectrum of occupations.
 Women in the service industry are paid only about 75 percent of the mean
weekly wages paid to men in equivalent positions.14
 In 2008 the average starting salary of a new female physician was $16,819 less
than her male counterpart after controlling for factors such as specialty and
hours worked.15
 A newly minted female MBA graduate is paid, on average, $4,600 less at her
first job than a new male MBA graduate.16
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1 U.S. Census Bureau. (2012). Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement: Table PINC-05: Work Experience in 2011 – People 15 Years Old and Over
by Total Money Earnings in 2011, Age, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex. Retrieved 27 November 2012, from
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032011/perinc/new05_000.htm (Unpublished calculation.)
2 Separa, M. (April 16, 2012). See What Inequity in Earnings Costs Women and Their Families Each Year and Over Their Lifetimes. Center for American Progress. Retrieved on 13
March 2013, from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2012/04/16/11435/infographic-the-gender-pay-gap
3 See note 1.
4 Ibid.
5 U.S. Census Bureau. (2012). Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement: Table P-40. Women's Earnings as a Percentage of Men's Earnings by Race
and Hispanic Origin. Retrieved 14 March 2013, from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/people (Unpublished calculation.)
6 Hayes, Jeffrey. (2011). Women’s Median Earnings as a Percent of Men’s Median Earnings, 1960-2009 (Full-Time, Year-Round
Workers) with Projection for Pay Equity in 2056. Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Retrieved 14 March 2013, http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/women2019s-medianearnings-as-a-percent-of-men2019s-median-earnings-1969-2009-full-time-year-round-workers-with-projection-for-pay-equity-in-2056/at_download/file
7 Institute for Women’s Policy Research. (March 2013). Fact Sheet: The Gender Wage Gap: 2012. Retrieved on 14 March 2013, from http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/pay-equityand-discrimination/#publications
8 Hegewisch, A., Williams., C. & Drago, R. (June 2011). Pay Secrecy and Wage Discrimination. Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Retrieved on 13 March 2013, from
http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/pay-equity-and-discrimination/#publications
9 Bamberger, P., Belogolovsky, E. (2010). The Impact of Pay Secrecy on Individual Task Performance (p. 988). Personnel Psychology vol. 63, 965-996.
10 Collela A., Paetzold, R., Zardkoohi, A., Wesson, M. (Jan. 2007). Exposing Pay Secrecy (p. 56). The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 32, No. 1, 55-71
11 Beede, D., Julian, T., Langdon, D., et al. (2011, August). Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation (Figure 3). U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics
Administration Publication. Retrieved 9 May 2012, from http://www.esa.doc.gov/sites/default/files/reports/documents/womeninstemagaptoinnovation8311.pdf
12 DeNavas-Walt, C., Proctor, B. D., & Smith, J. C. (2011, September). Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010 (Rep. No. P60-239). Retrieved
from United States Census Bureau website: http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf
13 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2011, December). Women in the Labor Force: A Databook (2011 Edition). Retrieved 9 May 2012, from
www.bls.gov/cps/wlf-databook2011.htm
14 Ibid.
15 Lo Sasso, A.T., Richards, M.R., Chou, C.F., et al. (2011, February). The $16,819 Pay Gap For Newly Trained Physicians: The Unexplained Trend Of Men Earning More Than
Women. Health Affairs, 30(2), 193-201.
16 Carter, N. M., & Silva, C. (2010). Pipeline's Broken Promise. Catalyst Publication. Retrieved 9 May 2012, from
http://www.catalyst.org/file/340/pipeline%27s_broken_promise_final_021710.pdf
NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP FOR WOMEN & FAMILIES | WOMEN AND THE WAGE GAP
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