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The gender wage gap narrowed to the lowest level on record last year, but for every dollar a man earned women took home 21 cents less, on average.
Women working full-time, year-round jobs earned 78.6% of what similar men did in 2014, according to a Census report released Wednesday. That’s the smallest gap on record back to 1960.
The latest reading marks a narrowing from 77.6% in 2013, but the change is not statistically significant. In fact, the pay gap hasn’t changed meaningfully since 2007, when it was 77.8%.
“There’s really no reason to celebrate,” said Heidi Hartmann , an economist and the president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research , a Washington think tank. “It’s just not a picture of strong and rapid improvement in the wage gap.”