If the earnings of women and men who are employed full-time, year-round change at the rate they have between 1959 and 2015, the gender wage gap in the United States will not close until 2059. The wage gap is projected to close first in Florida, with women achieving pay parity with men in 2038. In four states—North Dakota, Utah, Louisiana, and Wyoming—the wage gap will close in the 22nd century.
A girl born in the United States in 2017 has a life expectancy of 87 years.[1] In 2082, when she turns age 65, a wage gap will still remain in 13 states.
Notes: Linear projection based on the rate of progress in closing the gender wage gap since 1959. Projection is based on the ratio of women’s to men’s earnings among full-time, year-round workers aged 16 and older.
Source: IWPR calculations based on the 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 Decennial Census (for the calendar years 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989, and 1999) and the 2001-2015 American Community Surveys (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Version 6.0).
Notes: Linear projection based on the rate of progress in closing the gender wage gap since 1959. Projection is based on the ratio of women’s to men’s earnings among full-time, year-round workers aged 16 and older.
Source: IWPR calculations based on the 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 Decennial Census (for the calendar years 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989, and 1999) and the 2001-2015 American Community Surveys (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Version 6.0).
[1] Social Security Administration. 2017. “Life Expectancy Calculator.” <https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/longevity.cgi> (accessed March 1, 2017).
About the author
Julie Anderson was a Senior Research Associate at IWPR. She managed the Status of Women in the States projects and also worked extensively on workforce development and job training initiatives.
Julie was project manager for IWPR’s first regionally-focused report, The Status of Women in the South, as well as several state reports. She has presented Status of Women research on numerous webinars, teleconferences, and to international visiting opinion leaders and scholars. She is a frequent media spokesperson and has been interviewed for NPR, The Guardian, The Christian Science Monitor, and HuffPost Politics Live.
Prior to joining IWPR in December 2014, Julie was a researcher at the Center for Social Science Research at George Mason University. She has also worked at the Children’s Law Center and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Julie has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in sociology from George Mason University.
Jessica Milli is a Study Director at IWPR and Scholar in Residence at American University. She oversees IWPR’s work on paid sick days, providing technical assistance to dozens of communities across the country exploring paid sick days policies. In addition, Jessica leads IWPR research projects on breastfeeding and women in patenting.
Jessica has presented her work at events around the country and has testified before state and local legislative bodies on IWPR’s research. She has been interviewed in Bloomberg, The Atlantic, Fast Company, Marketplace, The Nation, TIME, ABC News, Fortune, and other national and regional outlets. Prior to joining IWPR, Jessica taught economics courses ranging from principles of microeconomics and economic statistics, to game theory and labor economics at several institutions including UW-Milwaukee, UW-Whitewater, and Randolph College.
Jessica received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. During her studies, she applied her focus of Labor Economics to relationships within households and what economic factors put women at more risk of experiencing domestic violence. Her dissertation analyzed the complex relationship between domestic violence and various measures of women’s socioeconomic status, such as welfare receipt and employment.
Melanie Kruvelis was the 2016 Mariam K. Chamberlain Fellow in Women and Public Policy for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Her work at IWPR focused on access to and within postsecondary spaces for underserved students in the United States, particularly independent students and parenting students. She was part of a team working on a cost-benefit analysis examining how increasing single mothers’ college attainment can benefit individuals, families, and society. Melanie earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan in 2014, and earned high honors for her thesis examining the economic, social, and religious conditions that may influence a nation’s likelihood of adopting gender provisions within its constitution. She previously worked at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research and in public radio.
