Research

Women’s Earnings: The Pay Gap (Quick Take)

Jul 05, 2023

GLOBAL

Women Continue to Experience Gender Wage Gaps Worldwide

Among OECD countries, the overall gender wage gap as of 2021 was 11.9%.1 While this is down from 13.0% in 2019, 2  the large variation between countries illustrates further that there is still a great amount of work to do. As an example, in 2021, Norway had a gap of 4.6% while Korea’s gap was over 31%.3

Leading causes of the gender pay gap include gender segregation in jobs, differences in educational attainment, caregiving responsibilities that fall heavily to women, a lack of pay transparency, discrimination, and bias.4

The Wage Gap Costs Women Millions in Pensions and Retirement Income

While participation in and access to pension plans is roughly equal across gender, women’s lower income affects their ability to contribute to these plans, resulting in lower balances at retirement.5

  • In 2022, women’s median annual 401k contributions were 43% less than men, resulting in a 65% lower account balance.6
  • Eliminating the wage gap and investing that income could result in an additional 1.6 million in retirement income for women.7

CANADA

By Every Measure, Canadian Women Face a Gender Wage Gap

Among full-time workers in 2022, women earned:8

  • 88.6% of what men earned based on average hourly wage rates.
  • 83.7% of what men earned based on average weekly wage rates.

Among all workers (full- and part-time) in 2022, women earned:9

  • 86.6% of what men earned based on average hourly wage rates.
  • 77.6% of what men earned based on average weekly wage rates.

The Wage Gap Is Even Higher for Women of Colour

All women of colour earn 59.3% less than White men; with South Asian women earning 55.1% less, Black women earning 58.5% less and Chinese women earning 65.4% less.10

The Wage Gap Widens as Women Are Penalized for Having Children, While Men Are Rewarded

  • Mothers with at least one minor child earned only 85 cents for every $1 earned by fathers, while fathers earned more than men without children.11

Canadian women’s average weekly wage as a percentage of men’s for select industries in 2022:12

  • Wholesale and Retail Trade: 70.6%
  • Construction: 77%
  • Manufacturing: 82.6%
  • Accommodation and Food Service: 84.6%
  • Health Care and Social Assistance: 87.6%

EUROPE

The Gender Pay Gap Varies Widely Across the EU

In 2021, women made, on average, 12.7% less than men across the European Union (EU-27), based on gross hourly earnings.13

The gap persists in every European country, including:14

  • France: 15.4%
  • Germany: 17.6%
  • Netherlands: 13.5%
  • Sweden: 11.2%

Women in the United Kingdom earned 8.3% less than men based on median gross hourly earnings for full-time workers in 2022.15

UNITED STATES

A Gender Wage Gap Continues to Exist in the United States

Women earned 82.0% of what men earned in 2022, based on the median hourly earnings for full- and part-time workers (meaning that women earned 82 cents for every $1 earned by men).16

  • This has risen very slightly from 80% in 2002.17
  • Women earned a median of $1,002 weekly in 2022 and men earned $1,219.18
Women’s median weekly earnings as a percentage of men’s for select industries and occupations in 2022:19
  • Management Occupations: 78%
  • Business and Financial Operations: 82.8%
  • Service Occupations: 83.8%
  • Computer and Mathematical Occupations: 82.1%
Most Women of Color Have a Higher-Than-Average Gender Wage Gap

Compared to every $1 earned by White men in 2021:

  • Black women earned 67 cents.20
  • Latinas earned 57 cents.21
  • White women earned 80 cents.22

Asian women earned 80 cents on average, but the wage gap can be substantially larger for some subgroups of AAPI women.23 For example, Burmese women (50 cents) and Nepali women (48 cents) are paid well below White men, based on earnings from 2017-2022.24

Women, Especially Women of Color, Experience a Significant Cumulative Lifetime Wage Gap in the United States

Based on the 2021 wage gap, women in the US lose, on average, $398,160 over a 40-year career compared to White men.25 These average losses can vary widely and are further amplified when comparing across racial and ethnic groups. In 2021, the breakdown by race and ethnicity was: 26

  • AANHPI women: $267,76027
  • Black women: $907,68028
  • Latinas: $1,188,96029
  • Native American women: $1,151,88030
  • White, non-Hispanic women: $556,20031

The Gender Wage Gap Increases With Age

As women age and progress in their careers, the pay gap increases, placing the pay parity that looked possible earlier in their careers out of reach.32

  • In 2020, women aged 20-24 years earned 92.9% of what men in the same age group earned, based on median weekly earnings.33
  • Of workers over 65 years old, women earned just 73.1% of men’s median weekly earnings for full-time wages and salaries.34

The Motherhood Penalty Affects Everything

The motherhood penalty—discrimination working women with children face in the workplace that men and childless women do not35—has a detrimental effect on all areas of a woman’s career and earnings.

  • A woman’s earning power drops by 4% for every child she has.36
  • Women without children are 8.2 times more likely to be recommended for a promotion than working mothers.37
  • Mothers only make 70 cents for every dollar a father makes.38
A Note About Measuring the Gender Pay Gap

There are a variety of ways to measure the gender wage gap. All of them tend to show a gap, but there are important differences to consider, which account for the range of data reported:39

  • Comparing the annual earnings of full- and part-time workers can be considered the most inclusive method, as it comprises differences in pay and in time spent at work and recognizes women’s unearned wages due to time spent on unpaid household and caregiving work.
  • Another common method is to look only at the annual earnings of women and men working full-time.
  • Comparing the hourly wages of all workers will control, to an extent, for the differences in overall hours worked, as men are more likely to work full-time and women part-time.

LEARN MORE

How to cite this product: Women’s earnings – The pay gap: Quick Take. (July 5, 2023). Catalyst.

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  2. OECD data – Gender wage gap [Data set]. (n.d.). OECD.
  3. OECD data – Gender wage gap [Data set]. (n.d.). OECD.
  4. The simple truth about the gender pay gap: 2021 update. (2022). American Association for University Women (AAUW); Gamage, D.K., Kavetsos, G., Mallick, S., & Sevilla, A. (2020, August). Pay transparency initiative and gender pay gap: Evidence from research-intensive universities in the UK. IZA Institute of Labor Economics.
  5. Closing the gender gap in retirement savings. (2023). T. Rowe Price.
  6. Closing the gender gap in retirement savings. (2023). T. Rowe Price.
  7. Mui, Y. (2022, March 30). The gender wage gap could cost women millions when they retire. CNBC.
  8. Statistics Canada. (2022). Table 14-10-0064-01: Employee wages by industry, annual [Data set]. Labour force survey.
  9. Statistics Canada. (2022). Table 14-10-0064-01: Employee wages by industry, annual [Data set]. Labour force survey.
  10. Statistics Canada. (2019, June 17). Visible minority (15), income statistics (17), generation status (4), age (10) and sex (3) for the population aged 15 years and over in private households of Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations, 2016 census – 25% sample data [Data set]. Data Tables, 2016 Census.
  11. The facts about the gender pay gap. (2022). Canadian Women’s Foundation.
  12. Statistics Canada. (2022). Table 14-10-0064-01: Employee wages by industry, annual [Data set]. Labour force survey.
  13. Gender pay gap statistics. (2023, March). Eurostat.
  14. Eurostat. (2022, March). Gender pay gap statistics. Eurostat: Statistics Explained.
  15. Gender pay gap for median gross hourly earnings in the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2022. (2022). Statista.
  16. The enduring grip of the gender pay gap. (2023). Pew Research Center.
  17. The enduring grip of the gender pay gap. (2023). Pew Research Center.
  18. Chun-Hoon, W. (2023, March 14). “5 Fast Facts: The Gender Wage Gap”. U.S. Department of Labor.
  19. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2023). Table 39: Median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by detailed occupation and sex [Data set]. Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey.
  20. The wage gap by state for Black women. (2023). National Women’s Law Center.
  21. The wage gap by state for Latinas. (2023). National Women’s Law Center.
  22. The wage gap by state for White, non-Hispanic women. (2023). National Women’s Law Center.
  23. Equal pay for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women. National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum.
  24. Equal pay for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women. National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum.
  25. The lifetime wage gap, state by state. (2023). National Women’s Law Center.
  26. Tucker, J. (2022, March 8). The wage gap robs women of economic security as the harsh impact of COVID-19 continues. National Women’s Law Center.
  27. Some Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and :Pacific Islander women lose over $1 million over a lifetime to the racist and sexist wage gap. (2023). National Women’s Law Center.
  28. The lifetime wage gap by state for Black women. (2023). National Women’s Law Center.
  29. The lifetime wage gap by state for Latinas. (2023). National Women’s Law Center.
  30. Native women lose over $1.1 million to the racist and sexist wage gap. (2023). National Women’s Law Center.
  31. The lifetime wage gap by state for White, non-Hispanic women. (2023). National Women’s Law Center.
  32. The enduring grip of the gender pay gap. (2023). Pew Research Center.
  33. Gender earnings ratios and wage gaps by age (annual). (2022). U.S. Department of Labor.
  34. Gender earnings ratios and wage gaps by age (annual). (2022). U.S. Department of Labor.
  35. Diamond, R. (2023, February 13). The Motherhood Penalty in the Workplace. Psychology Today.
  36. Lake, R. (2021, December 28). The Hidden Penalty of Motherhood. The Balance.
  37. Correll, S.,Benard, S., & Paik, I. (2007). Mothers face penalties in hiring, starting salaries, and perceived competence while fathers can benefit from being a parent. American Journal of Sociology, 1297-1339.
  38. Effects of COVID-19 Show Us Equal Pay Is Critical for Mothers. (2020). National Women’s Law Center.
  39. Statistics Canada. (2019, August 30). Measuring and analyzing the gender pay gap: A conceptual and methodological overview. The Daily.