Wage Gap in 2024:   

  • Women working full time, year-round were paid just 81 cents for every dollar paid to men in 2024, down from 83 cents in the previous year and 84 cents in 2022. This marks the second year in a row of statistically significant widening, and is the first time since 1960 when this data became available that the gender wage gap has widened for two consecutive years.  This calculation compares women of all races/ethnicities and men of all races/ethnicities.  
  • The wage gap for full-time, year-round workers was even worse for some women by race/ethnicity:  
    • Black women working full time, year-round were paid just 65 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, down from 66 cents in 2023 and 69 cents in 2022.  
    • Latina women working full time, year-round were paid just 58 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, unchanged from 2023.  
    • Native women working full time, year-round were paid just 58 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, unchanged from 2023. 
    • White, non-Hispanic women working full time, year-round were paid just 77 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, down from 80 cents in 2023.  
  • When part-time and part-year workers are included, the wage gap is even larger, with women being paid just 76 cents for every dollar paid to men in 2024, up from 75 cents in 2023. Again, this calculation compares women of all races/ethnicities to men of all races/ethnicities. 
  • The wage gap between all working women and men, including part-time and part-year workers, was even worse for some women by race/ethnicity in 2024:  
    • Including part-time and part-year workers, Black women were paid just 63 cents for every dollar paid to working white, non-Hispanic men, compared to 64 cents in 2023.  
    • Including part-time and part-year workers, Latinas were paid 54 cents for every dollar paid to working white, non-Hispanic men, up from 51 cents in 2023.  
    • Including part-time and part-year workers, Native women were paid 53 cents for every dollar paid to working white, non-Hispanic men, compared to 52 cents in 2023. 
    • Including part-time and part-year workers, white, non-Hispanic women were paid just 73 cents for every dollar paid to working white, non-Hispanic men, unchanged from 2023.  

*** The wage gaps for Native women were calculated using the American Community Survey 1-year data. The wage gaps for all other groups were calculated using the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) data from the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Poverty in 2024:   

  • Using the Census Bureau’s supplemental poverty measure (SPM), 13.6% of women and girls lived in poverty in 2024, similar to 13.4% in 2023. In comparison, 7.9% of women and girls lived in poverty in 2021, a record low thanks to the investments in the expanded child tax credit, pandemic unemployment assistance, enhanced subsidies to allow more low-income individuals to purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, and other pandemic relief programs.  
  • The SPM poverty rate for children held steady between 13.7% in 2023 and 13.4% in 2024, which remains a significant jump from 5.2% in 2021 when the pandemic relief programs were in place.
  • Poverty rates as measured by the SPM were worse for many women of color, older women, and families headed by single women with children: 
    • 13.7% women aged 18 and older lived in poverty in 2024, compared to 11.9% of men 18 and older. 
    • Over one in five Black women (21.2%) and Latinas (21.0%) lived in poverty last year as compared to 8.4% of white, non-Hispanic men.  
    • 16.2% of women aged 65 and older lived in poverty last year, compared to 13.5% of men aged 65 and older. 
    • More than a quarter (28.9%) of families headed by single women with children lived in poverty. 
  • In 2024, critical programs and benefits kept millions of people out of poverty as measured by the SPM:  
    • Refundable tax credits lifted nearly 6.8 million people out of poverty, which is significantly fewer than the 9.6 million they lifted out of poverty in 2021.  
    • Unemployment insurance lifted over 400,000 people out of poverty, which is significantly fewer than the 2.3 million it lifted out of poverty in 2021. 
      • Unemployment insurance, the Child Tax Credit, and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit were significantly expanded under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) enacted in 2021, but these expansions had expired by the end of 2021.  
    • Housing subsidies lifted over 2.1 million people out of poverty.  
    • The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, kept nearly 3.6 million people above the poverty line. 
    • Social Security lifted 28.7 million people above the poverty line.  
  • Work is not enough to ensure that people do not live in poverty. As measured by the SPM, in 2024, more than two in five working-age (16-64) individuals in poverty (41.6%), and 37.8% of working-age women in poverty, were employed. 
  • Poverty rates using the official poverty measure (OPM) in 2024:
Women and girls   11.6% 
Women 18 and older   10.9% 
      Black women   17.8% 
      Latinas   15.2% 
      Native women   19.4% 
      AANHPI women   10.2% 
           AA women   10.0% 
           NHPI women   15.9% 
Men 18 and older  8.3% 
Children   14.3% 
Families headed by single women with children   30.6% 
Women 65 and older   10.8% 
Men 65 and older  8.9%

 

*** The official poverty measure (OPM) reported by the Census Bureau measures the percentage of the U.S. population with total income below the federal poverty threshold for their family size. “Income” is calculated before taxes and includes only cash income, such as earnings, pension and retirement income, investment income, Social Security, public assistance (cash), unemployment benefits, workers’ compensation, veterans’ payments, and alimony and child support payments. 

*** The supplemental poverty measure (SPM) extends the official poverty measure partly by incorporating the value of several federal and state benefits that help support low-income families but are not counted as income under the official poverty measure (e.g. SNAP benefits, Earned Income Tax Credit, and the refundable portion of Child Tax Credit and the Child and Dependent Care Credit), minus nondiscretionary expenses (e.g., taxes, work, and medical expenses). 

*** The poverty rates for Native, AANHPI, AA, and NHPI women were calculated using the American Community Survey 1-year data. The poverty rates for all other groups were calculated using the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) data from the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Health Insurance Coverage in 2024:   

  • 92.9% of women and girls had some form of health insurance coverage in 2024. Over 12.2 million women and girls remained uninsured. 
  • The share of women and girls without health insurance coverage was 7.1% in 2024, slightly up from 7.0% in 2023. In comparison, 12.3% of women and girls were without insurance in 2013, before the Affordable Care Act fully took effect. 
  • Over one in 10 women of reproductive age (19-54) were uninsured in 2024, meaning nearly 8.2 million women in this age group had no coverage last year. 
  • Uninsurance rates varied significantly by immigration status, race, and ethnicity and were higher for women and girls who are non-citizens, Latina, and Black women, underscoring the importance of policies that address the specific barriers they face when seeking health insurance coverage, including immigration status and gender- and race-based discrimination: 
    • 26.0% of women and girls who are non-citizens were uninsured in 2024, compared with 5.5% of native-born women and girls. 
    • Latina women and girls (15.6% uninsured) were over 3 times more likely than white, non-Hispanic women and girls (4.4% uninsured) to be without insurance in 2024.  
    • 7.5% of Black women and girls were uninsured in 2024, up from 6.9% in 2023. 

***The Census Bureau only counts individuals as uninsured in 2023 if they did not have insurance for all 12 months. This means some people may have been without health insurance for part of the year, and they are not counted among the uninsured. As a result, uninsurance rates for 2023 may be underestimated. 

***The Census Bureau health insurance data is not available before 1999 and all historical comparisons are from 1999 to 2024.  

*** The numbers were calculated using the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) data from the U.S. Census Bureau.