Today marks six years since President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. This law restores important protections against pay discrimination which were stripped away in the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and is a critical step in the fight to close the wage gap. But the fight is far from finished. Here are six facts that show how much farther we still have to go:*
- Women are typically paid only 78 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts—and this figure has barely budged in more than a decade.
- The wage gap is even more substantial when race and gender are considered together, with African American women typically making only 64 cents, and Latinas only 56 cents, for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.
- The wage gap persists at all levels of education. Women with only high school diplomas are typically paid just 76 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. Among people with bachelor’s degrees or higher, the figure is just 73 cents.
- Women typically lose $435,049 during a 40-year career due to the wage gap. A woman would have to work more than eleven years longer to make up this gap.
- Even in low-wage jobs that typically pay $10.10 per hour or less, women face a 13-cent wage gap.
- There is a wage gap in almost every occupation: An NWLC analysis found that in only three occupations out of 111 are the median weekly earnings of women working full time not lower than those of men: computer occupations; wholesale and retail buyers; and bakers.
Fortunately there are solutions that will help close the wage gap. We must strengthen our equal pay laws. We must raise wages for minimum wage workers, two-thirds of whom are women, and build ladders for women into better-paying non-traditional jobs. We must put in place 21st century workplace policies that enable women to stay in the workforce including paid leave, adequate child care, fair scheduling practices, and we must shore up pregnancy discrimination laws.
*All facts compare the median annual earnings for full-time, year-round workers unless otherwise noted.