State by State, Mothers Are Paid Much Less Than Fathers

Mothers earned less than fathers prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, during the pandemic, and as the economy began to recover from the pandemic. In 2021, the most recently available annual earnings data, the median annual earnings for mothers amounted to just 61.7 cents on the dollar paid to fathers for all with earnings, and for mothers who worked full-time year-round just 73.5 cents on the dollar paid to fathers working full-time year-round. The wage gap between mothers and fathers is substantially wider than the wage gap between all women and all men.