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Women are taking pay cuts as companies mandate return to office
The gender wage gap reversal comes after several consecutive decades of wage parity “moving in the right direction,” according to Jasmine Tucker, vice president for research at the National Women’s Law Center.
But that began to change during the pandemic, Tucker said, as the evaporation of child care availability translated to more women than men leaving the labor force, “for longer periods of time.”
Time away leaves workers with disadvantageous resume gaps, she said, adding that many may have had to return to work “at a lower level than they left,” to break back in. Women are also overrepresented in low-wage jobs, which may have contributed to the widening of the gap in 2023 as many rejoined the labor force, Tucker said.