Wage Gap Data Widens for Second Consecutive Year, First Time Since 1960

Washington, D.C. – The wage gap continues to widen between women and men, and remains worse for Black women and other women of color working full time, year-round, according to an annual report by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) analyzing the gender wage gap. 

Based on the most recent available data, the report, A Window into the Wage Gap, found that women were paid 81 cents for every dollar paid to men in 2024. That’s less than the 84 cents they made in 2022 compared to men, and the 83-cent gap in 2023. The most recent data shows that the gender wage gap widened for the second consecutive year in a row for the first time ever since data has been collected.  . This gap translates to $13,570 less per year in median earnings, shortchanging the women and their families that need every dollar to make ends meet.

The report’s toplines include:

  • Black women working full time, year-round, typically were paid only 65 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men in 2024. This reflects a wider wage gap than the 66 cents they made in 2023 and the 69 cents they made in 2022.  
  • Latinas and Indigenous women working full time, year-round typically were paid only 58 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, both unchanged from the prior year.
  • Based on today’s wage gap, a woman who works full time, year-round stands to lose $542,000 over a 40-year career. To close this lifetime wage gap, she would need to work more than nine additional years—and of course these lost wages can never really be made up. These lifetime gaps were far worse for Black women, Latinas, and Indigenous women who all lose over $1.1 million due to the wage gap over a 40-year career.
  • When comparing all mothers who worked to all fathers who worked, regardless of how many hours or weeks they worked during the year, mothers were typically paid just 64 cents for every dollar paid to fathers.
  • Women generally make less than men in 94 percent of occupations.

The following is a statement by Jasmine Tucker, vice president for research at NWLC:

“Unequal pay remains pervasive, and the Trump administration’s attempt to push women out of the workforce, undermine protections, and revert back to more white and male workplaces is making things far worse. We need proactive attempts to steer us in the direction of progress, which includes pay range transparency from employers, strengthening child care and reproductive health supports, and taking these unethical employers to court, which we have done time and time again. It’s not an accident that white men’s pay and opportunities are increasing. But everyone deserves that.”

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