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Women’s Equal Pay Day Shows Progress Has Been Made but Further Progress is Needed

Key Points:
The gender pay gap has shrunk over time, but not closed
The average gender pay gap hides vast racial gender pay gap differences
Higher educational attainment by women does not close the gender wage gap
Women are overrepresented in the lowest paying occupations, and underrepresented in the highest paying occupations

March 15, 2022, is Women’s Equal Pay Day, the day that represents how far into the year an American woman has to work on average in order to earn as much as an American man earned on average in the past year. In 2020, the latest year for which data is available, women earned 83% of what men earned.

  • The gender pay gap has shrunk over time, but not closed
  • The average gender pay gap hides vast racial gender pay gap differences
  • Higher educational attainment by women does not close the gender wage gap
  • Women are overrepresented in the lowest paying occupations, and underrepresented in the highest paying occupations

Women’s Equal Pay Day is an opportunity to reflect on the progress that has been made towards the goal of ensuring that people are paid equally for equal work, but also how much work remains to be done.

Read the full report here.