Despite initiatives to bridge the gap between men’s and women’s earnings, the gender pay gap in the US remains stubbornly wide, with little change in the past two decades, a recent report by the Pew Research Center has found. The report suggests that closing this gap will require more than just targeted initiatives; flexible work options and a shift in cultural norms will also be crucial.
The battle for equal pay wages on, as a new report from the Pew Research Center reveals that women still only earn about 82 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2022. And while that’s an improvement from the 80 cents on the dollar earned in 2002, it’s a far cry from the major gains women made in the two decades prior, going from a mere 65 cents per dollar in 1982. The report highlights the urgent need for more flexible work and cultural changes to close this persistent gap. Senior researcher Rakesh Kochhar emphasized that there is no single explanation for the stalling progress in the 21st century.
“Women generally begin their careers closer to wage parity with men, but they lose ground as they age and progress through their work lives, a pattern that has remained consistent over time,” he wrote. “The pay gap persists even though women today are more likely than men to have graduated from college.”
Despite progress made by younger women early in their careers, the gender pay gap in the US remains persistent, with college-educated women earning no more than those without a degree. Factors such as parenthood, age, race, and ethnicity continue to contribute to the disparity, according to a report by the Pew Research Center. Although women in the 25-34 age group saw their earnings close in on 90 cents to the dollar compared to men around 2017, the gap tends to widen as they get older.
The gender pay gap is a persistent issue in the US, and new research from the Pew Research Center sheds light on the reasons why. The report found that the gap widens between ages 35-44, when women are more likely to have children under 18 at home. This, coupled with the fact that mothers tend to put their careers on hold and become less engaged with the workplace, means that younger women are closing some of the gap, but it tends to increase with age. In 2022, for example, 1.4 million younger mothers withdrew from the workforce, while fathers were more likely to have a job and work longer hours than other men their age.
The gap also varies widely by race and ethnicity, with Black and Hispanic women earning significantly less than their White and Asian counterparts. Moving forward, closing the gap will require societal and cultural changes and workplace flexibility to balance careers and family life.
“Even in countries that have taken the lead in implementing family-friendly policies, such as Denmark, parenthood continues to drive a significant wedge in the earnings of men and women,” Kochhar wrote. “New research suggests that family-friendly policies in the U.S. may be keeping the pay gap from closing. Gender stereotypes and discrimination, though difficult to quantify, also appear to be among the ‘last-mile’ hurdles impeding further progress.”