By Amanda Iacone

Women in the U.S. earn 85 percent of what their male peers take home—an improvement from 81 percent the prior year. But the wage gap grows as workers age. Women 50 and older earn just 80 percent of what their male colleagues make.

In the U.S., where the wage gap hasn’t budged, women on average earn 19 cents less for every dollar earned by men, said Ariane Hegewisch, program director on Employment and Earnings for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research based in Washington.

Among high-wage professions like accounting and financial services, the gap is even wider, she told Bloomberg Tax.

Pay equity could be short-lived if the profession doesn’t retain women, who are joining the profession in growing numbers around the world, or if those women aren’t able to climb the career ladder at the same rate as their male peers, Hegewisch said.

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