Equal Pay Day 2018 is Tuesday, April 10. This day symbolizes how far into the new year women had to work to earn as much as men earned in the previous year. In 2016, women working full-time, year-round made only 80.5 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 19.5 percent.
We hope these 5 resources on the gender wage gap will help inform your conversations about the gender wage gap on Equal Pay Day.. Join the conversation online with #EqualPayDay and follow us at @IWPResearch.
- Five Ways to Win an Argument about the Gender Wage Gap
The 80.5 percent wage gap statistic is not misleading. It is actually a moderate estimate of gender pay inequality. IWPR’s fact sheet provides research-backed responses to five common misconceptions about the gender wage gap statistics.
- The Gender Wage Gap: 2017 Earnings Differences by Race and Ethnicity
The last decade saw the slowest progress on closing the gender wage gap in nearly 40 years, according to IWPR’s recently updated fact sheet. IWPR also found that, with median weekly earnings of $941, men earned $171 more per week than women, who earned $770.
- Projections for when the wage gap will close: for women of color and for each state
Women will have to wait another four decades—or much longer—for equal pay.
If current trends continue, it will take 41 years—or until 2059—for women to finally reach pay parity with men. For many women of color, the rate of progress is even slower. Hispanic women will have to wait until 2233—216 years from now—and Black women will wait until 2124 for equal pay.
The pace of progress also depends on where you live. The wage gap is projected to close first in Florida, with women achieving pay parity with men in 2038. In four states—North Dakota, Utah, Louisiana, and Wyoming—the wage gap will close in the 22nd century at current rates of progress.
- The Impact of Equal Pay on Poverty and the Economy
Equal pay would cut poverty among working women by half and add $513 billion in wage and salary income to the U.S. economy. IWPR’s briefing paper also analyzes the impact on children with working mothers, finding that equal pay would cut the poverty rate for children with a working mother by half.
Bonus: our state analysis explores the impact of equal pay on poverty and state economies.
- The Economic Status of Women in the States: 2018
How does your state measure up? IWPR’s new state grades on the economic status of women show stagnant or declining progress in most states. Compared with 2015, the last time the state scores were calculated, 11 states received a lower grade on IWPR’s Employment & Earnings Index, which measures states on women’s earnings, the gender wage gap, women’s labor force participation, and women’s representation in professional and managerial occupations.
See your state’s report card at statusofwomendata.org.
Bonus: The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation 2017 and by Race and Ethnicity
There are 4.2 million women who work in occupations with poverty-level wages, more than eight times as many as the 0.5 million men who do, according to a new analysis of the gender wage gap by occupation released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) in advance of Equal Pay Day on Tuesday, April 10.
Find more resources on Pay Equity & Discrimination at IWPR.org.
