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Key Findings
- In 2025, women were paid less than men for full-time work1 in all 20 occupations that employ the most women and in all 20 occupations that employ the most men in the United Across all detailed occupations with sufficient data, women were paid up to $846 less per week compared to men in the same occupation.2
- In over four-fifths of occupations, women’s earnings were at least 5 percent lower than men’s. Nearly two-thirds of occupations had a gender earnings ratio ranging between 70 percent and 90 percent.
- In 2025, women made up 9 percent of the total full-time workforce and earned 82.1 cents for every dollar earned by men. This is a decrease from a gender earnings ratio of 82.7 cents on the dollar in 2024, and the second year in a row of decline, after the significant decrease in 2023 from 83.6 cents on the dollar.3
Women Earn Less than Men in Nearly All Occupations
In 2025, women working full-time earned less than men in nearly all occupations, regardless of whether these occupations were female-dominated or male-dominated. In 112 out of 132 occupations with sufficient data to calculate the gender earnings ratio for full-time weekly workers, women earned at least 5 percent less than men (or had an earnings ratio of less than 95 percent).4
The majority of occupations, 84 of 132, had a gender earnings ratio ranging between 70 percent and 90 percent. In seven occupations, women’s earnings were less than 70 percent of men’s. For example, women employed as paralegals and legal assistants had the lowest gender earnings ratio among all occupations, earning 61.5 cents on the dollar compared to their male co-workers.5 This means women were paid $730 less per week at the median, leaving them with less income to cover child care expenses, medical costs, student loan payments, and retirement.
Women’s median weekly earnings6 were nearly equal to men’s in only four occupations: industrial production managers (99 percent), fast food and counter workers (98.5 percent), pharmacists (98.1 percent), and food preparation workers (98 percent). In 7 of the 132 detailed occupations with sufficient data, women’s median weekly earnings exceeded men’s. The largest three occupations with gender earnings ratios above 100 percent were counselors, all other7 (107.6 percent), transportation, storage, and distribution managers (116.7 percent), and educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors (120.3 percent). However, less than 1 percent of women employed full-time work in these three occupations.8
Women Earn Less than Men in the 20 Largest Occupations for Women
In each of the 20 largest occupations for women working full-time, women were paid less than men (Table 1). The gender earnings ratio in these occupations ranged from 96.9 percent for receptionists and information clerks, as well as personal care aides, to 72.4 percent for secretaries and administrative assistants (excluding legal, medical, and executive). Notably, over 91 percent of those working full-time as secretaries and administrative assistants are women; however, women in this occupation had the lowest earnings ratio compared to men among the 20 largest occupations for women (72.4 percent).
At $617 per week, women employed as cashiers had the lowest median weekly earnings among the 20 largest occupations for women (compared to $694 for men of the same occupation). Women employed as managers had the highest median weekly earnings at $1,702 (compared to $2,089 for men of the same occupation), although less than half (40.1 percent) of managers employed full-time are women. Despite cashiers having the lowest median weekly earnings among the largest occupations for women, their earnings ratio (88.9 percent) is higher than that of managers (81.5 percent). This reflects common findings that women’s earnings are closer to men’s earnings in low-paying occupations because conditions are often inadequate for all workers.9
Women Earn Less than Men in the 20 Largest Occupations for Men
The gender earnings ratio in these occupations ranged from 94.5 percent for software developers to 70.6 percent for retail sales workers. While the gap was narrowest for women software developers, just 20.5 percent of full-time software developers are women. In contrast, women employed as retail sales workers had the widest wage gap, earning 70.6 cents per dollar compared to men. Three of the 20 largest occupations for men did not have a sufficient sample size of women to calculate their median weekly earnings or gender earnings ratio: electricians, carpenters, and automotive service technicians and mechanics (Table 2).
Policies to Achieve Pay Equity and Economic Security for All Women
Historic and present data reveal the truth about women’s experience in the workforce: Women in the United States do not choose to earn less—they earn less even when working full-time in the same occupations as men. To begin to address the diverse factors that contribute to the gender wage gap and inequities between different groups of women, policymakers should start by pursuing the evidence-informed policy solutions that encompass an equally diverse range of actions, including:
- Defend workers’ rights from current threats and support improvements for equal pay protections. As workers’ rights and equal pay protections continue to face mounting threats, it is crucial that policymakers ensure that federal agencies, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, have sufficient resources and that oversight authorities are utilized to fully monitor, uphold, and enforce existing worker nondiscrimination protections and statutes. Rather than being undermined, such workers’ rights and equal pay protections must also be further strengthened by closing loopholes and gaps in statutes.
- Promote higher wages and better job quality in industries dominated by women. This includes a range of policy actions at both the federal and state levels, such as increasing the minimum wage and abolishing the tipped minimum wage; providing comprehensive access to paid leave, including sick leave and family leave, and child care; and supporting the right of workers to act collectively and join or form a union.
To learn more about related legislation and executive priorities on equitable work and wages, see IWPR’s Federal Policy Solutions to Advance Gender Equity briefs on Equal Pay and Better Workplaces. For state-level data on women and legislative developments, visit IWPR’s State Policy Action Lab.
This fact sheet was prepared by Miranda Peterson and Comfort Sampong. Thank you to our key funders for their generous support of IWPR’s core research and flagship products.