The gender wage gap actually widened last year, according to a new analysis from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) based on weekly data for full-time workers. The ratio of median weekly earnings for women who work full time compared to men was 81.1 percent in 2015, a 1.4 percentage point decrease over the year before.
It’s not yet clear whether this is a statistically significant decrease, explained IWPR’s Ariane Hegewisch . But the new data follows a familiar pattern that should be concerning. “Typically the wage gap widens when the economy does well, and it narrows when the economy doesn’t do well,” she noted.
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