Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Connecting the Dots: “Women’s Work” and the Wage Gap

"Most of us know that women are sometimes paid less than their male colleagues. But what you may not know is just how much the difference adds up. 

The gender wage gap is a calculation that reflects the fact that, on average, women are paid less than men. In 2020, the latest year with available data, when comparing the median wages of women who worked full-time, year-round to the wages of men who worked full-time, year-round: 

  • All women were paid, on average, 83% of what men were paid. Or put another way, women were paid 83 cents to every dollar paid to men.  

  • Many women of color were paid even less. For example, Black women were paid 64%, and Hispanic women (of any race) were paid 57% of what white non-Hispanic men were paid. 

These figures are calculated by looking at the median wages of all workers who were employed full-time for at least 50 weeks out of the year, so these figures reflect many notable differences between working women and men. These are useful numbers to help identify a distinct pattern of lower pay, but by themselves these figures do little to help us understand why women’s pay is lower.  

In 2020, the Women’s Bureau collaborated with the U.S. Census Bureau to conduct what is currently the most comprehensive analysis of the gender wage gap to date. The data shows that the majority of the gap between men and women’s wages cannot be explained through measurable differences between workers, such as age, education, industry or work hours. It is highly likely that at least some of this unmeasured portion is the result of discrimination, but it is impossible to capture exactly in a statistical model..."
Women's work 

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