A new Fact Sheet released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) based on median annual earnings data for full-time/year-round workers released today by the U.S. Bureau for Labor Statistics, suggests a widening of the gender wage gap from 22.2 in 2007 to 22. 9 in 2008; (the changes are not statistically significant). In 2008 women earned 77. 1 cents for every dollar earned by a man, compared with 77.8 cents in 2007. Real wages, compared with 2007, fell 2 percent for women, and 1 percent for men.
IWPR Study Director Ariane Hegewisch says, “the lack of progress on closing the gender wage gap is bad news for all American families. The large majority of families rely on women’s earnings, now more so than ever. A fifth of all households with children have to make do solely with the earnings of a woman. We need more effective policies to narrow the wage gap, including better enforcement of wages and equal employment opportunity legislation and targeted training programs, to ensure that both men and women are able to earn a living wage and keep themselves and their children out of poverty, now and in old age.”
View the Fact Sheet here