Employment and Earnings
Whether paid or unpaid, women’s work is crucial for their families’ economic security and well-being. Greater gender equality in paid and unpaid work will reduce poverty and improve economic growth and prosperity; persistent inequity in employment and family work is costing all of us. Women are held back by the undervaluation of historically female work, workplaces designed as if workers had no family responsibilities, and a broken-down work-family infrastructure.
IWPR’s Employment and Earnings program highlights the extent of pay inequalities, and the role played by stark occupational segregation in perpetuating unequal pay. We conduct research and analysis on women’s labor force participation and employment trends; workforce development, non-traditional employment, and apprenticeships; the impact of sex discrimination and harassment on women’s career advancement and mobility; the gender pay gap and pay inequity across race and ethnicity; work-family policies and employer practices; the and the impact of automation and technological advances on women workers.
We work with policymakers, employers, advocates, and practitioners to identify promising practices and policy solutions.
Women Fall Further Behind Men in Recovery and Are 5.8 Million Jobs Below Pre-COVID Employment Level
New jobs figures from September show much less job growth than in the previous month, particularly for women, according to the U.S. Bureau for Labor Statistics latest Employment Situation release. Women’s official rates unemployment fell, while the number of women who are no longer actively looking for work increased.
Women’s Median Earnings as a Percent of Men’s, 1985–2019 (Full-Time, Year-Round Workers) with Projections for Pay Equity, by Race/Ethnicity
Notes: Estimates presented for All Women are based on the earnings ratio for full-time, year-round workers between all women and all men, while the estimates for White, Black, Asian, and Hispanic women are based on the earnings ratio for full-time, year-round workers of each [...]
State-by-State Earnings for American Indian and Alaska Native Women: Wage Gaps Across the States
American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women have made important advances socially, economically, and politically—they are starting their own businesses, getting elected to congress, and serving essential roles in their families and communities. Despite their efforts, they continue to face a range of obstacles to their and their family’s economic wellbeing and overall economic security.
Same Gap, Different Year: The Gender Wage Gap, 2019 Earnings Differences by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity
The rate of progress toward closing the gender pay gap did not increase in 2019. If the pace of change in the annual earnings ratio continues at the same rate as it has since 1960, it will take another 39 years, until 2059, for men and women to reach parity.1 This projection for equal pay has remained unchanged for the past four years.
Women’s Median Earnings as a Percent of Men’s, 1960–2019 (Full-Time, Year-Round Workers) with Projections for Pay Equity in 2059
Women’s Median Earnings as a Percent of Men’s Median Earnings, 1960-2019 (Full-time, Year-round Workers) with Projection for Pay Equity in 2059
Black Women to Reach Equal Pay with White Men in 2130
The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated the pernicious effect of gender and racial inequality, and the profound undervaluation of some of the most essential jobs for society, ones that require the care and supports of families.