By Emily Shugerman
A study released Wednesday found that women workers in the United States earned less than half of what men did over the last 15 years. The study, conducted by economists at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, analyzed the incomes of men and women who worked for at least one year between 2000 and 2015. Over those 15 years, researchers found, the women workers earned just 49 percent of what the men did—much less than the commonly cited 80 percent figure. “The most commonly cited measure of the wage gap compares earnings of women and men who work full-time, year-round in that year,” IWPR President Heidi Hartmann explained in a statement. “What we found is that women face a much wider wage gap that is commonly cited, earning just half of what men earn over 15 years.”
