Because employers hire across states, pay transparency in one state can affect hiring practices in other states. Academic research from Texas A&M University concludes that sterling academic credentials simply don’t carry the same pay premium for women compared to men. The most likely reason for the gender wage gap widening with age is women becoming mothers and taking lower-paying jobs, despite men equally being parents.
- Data show that employees with caregiving responsibilities — disproportionately women — face different career outcomes than those without such responsibilities.
- ” perpetuates the wage gap, as women and minorities who were historically underpaid carry that lower salary to their next job.
- Regular monitoring helps ensure fair pay outcomes and integrates pay equity into everyday compensation decisions and pay communications.
- For Industries, we calculated a weighted average of the custom Payscale aggregations of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) groups when definitions span multiple NAICS industries (e.g. Technology).
- Because employers hire across states, pay transparency in one state can affect hiring practices in other states.
Payscale can help employers monitor the controlled and uncontrolled pay gap in their organizations. The uncontrolled gap reflects the overall difference in earnings between men and women across the economy, including differences in the types of jobs held and career progression. The uncontrolled gender pay gap is not less meaningful than the controlled gender pay gap. When data are controlled for job title and other compensable factors, the gender pay gap narrows to $0.99, which is a gap. The uncontrolled gender pay gap is sometimes called the “opportunity gap.”
In 2025, women in Vermont earned 93 cents for every dollar earned by men — the smallest gap in the nation. Within occupations, full-time working men earned more than women across all 15 total categories tracked in the first quarter of 2025. After adjusting for inflation, the gender pay gap was narrowest in the second quarter of 2023, when men earned $198 more per week than women. The pay gap was at its narrowest in the second quarter of 2023 when women made 85 cents for every dollar made by men. Women made about 82 cents for every dollar men made as of the second quarter of 2026.
The gender pay gap
This is likely the result of low-paying minimum wage roles and jobs with union/institutionalized pay schedules. Women who can’t work from home had the narrowest uncontrolled pay gap ($0.89). Similarly, in Transportation & Material Moving ($0.87 uncontrolled), women may be less abundant in high-paying positions like commercial pilots, freight managers, and logistics directors. The widest uncontrolled gaps reveal occupational hierarchies within professions.
- Overall, 38% of states have closed the controlled gender pay gap in this year’s sample.
- The data show that majority-female occupations do not eliminate the pay gap — women in these roles still earn less than men in comparable positions.
- Women made about 82 cents for every dollar men made as of the second quarter of 2026.
- In 2026, the uncontrolled gender pay gap is $0.82, meaning that women collectively earn 18% less than men based on how they’re paid for the jobs they have now.
Report on the topic
- Employers cannot rely on prior salary history to justify a wage differential.
- May assist in network modeling, analysis, planning, and coordination between network and data communications hardware and software.
- Payscale in the spotlight—where trusted data meets industry influence.
- May conduct meetings with sales personnel and introduce new products.
- Payscale is the original compensation innovator for organizations who want to scale their business with pay and transform their largest investment into their greatest advantage.
We used this data to analyze pay gaps among men and women with and without children. In our online salary survey, we asked respondents if they are a parent or primary caregiver. Seven of the top 20 jobs with the widest gender pay gaps this year also made the list last year. The top three positions in the top 20 list included Wholesale and Retail Buyers, https://loreleiweb.com/how-technology-can-transform-your-hr-department/ which are new this year, as well as Pharmacy Technicians and Claims Adjusters, which were also on the list last year. While on average women earn $0.99 compared to $1 for men when data are controlled, the pay gap is wider for some jobs. For the roughly 80 million women in the U.S. workforce, lost earnings of 18% due to the gender wage gap amounts to approximately $1.1 trillion in a single year.
While some argue algorithms can set pay objectively and eliminate human bias, critics warn that if AI is trained on historical data, it will simply automate and hide the existing wage gap. Furthermore, new laws in states like California and New York require employers to post salary ranges on job descriptions, aiming to close the gap through radical transparency. Consequently, https://eurodialogue.org/More-Europe-in-Lithuania-or-Lithuania-in-Europe dozens of states and cities have banned salary history questions. ” perpetuates the wage gap, as women and minorities who were historically underpaid carry that lower salary to their next job.
Equal pay refers to paying employees the same for performing the same job or substantially similar work, regardless of gender or other protected characteristics. Regular pay equity audits help employers identify and correct disparities before they grow. Research suggests that evaluation language and criteria can vary, and standardized, objective criteria help ensure performance assessments are based on job-related factors. Some skeptics claim the controlled gender wage pay exists because women perform worse than men when doing the same or similar jobs.
Why is there a gender pay gap?
You need a “comparator”—a specific employee of a different gender or race who makes more money for doing substantially the same job. The law looks at the actual duties performed, focusing on skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. Texas Texas Labor Code Largely mirrors federal law without the stricter “salary history” bans seen in progressive states. Employers cannot rely on prior salary history to justify a wage differential. Jurisdiction Law / Standard Key Feature for Employees Federal Equal Pay Act & Title VII Requires equal pay for “equal work” (substantially similar jobs). This was quickly followed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which broadened protections against pay discrimination based on race, color, http://driwers.net/look-east-policy-could-be-the-kohinoor-for-north-east-india.php religion, sex, or national origin.