Fair Pay: Facts & Figures

Although the majority of Americans say that they are concerned about the economy, women are more likely than men to be worried and concerned about their economic prospects. Their concerns are certainly valid; women are far more likely to live in poverty than men, and the small gains that some women made in 2007 may already have been wiped out by the job losses and soaring prices for food, energy, child care, and health care seen in 2008.

Yet even when the economy is stable, women face continuing wage disparities that unfairly reduce their incomes. Women working full-time, year-round are paid only about 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. For women of color, the numbers are even worse - African-American women earn 61 cents and Latinas earn 52 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. This wage gap cannot be dismissed as the result of "women's choices in career and family matters. In fact, authoritative studies show that even when all relevant career and family attributes are taken into account, there is still a significant, unexplained gap in men's and women's earnings. Thus, even when women make the same career choices as men and work the same hours, they still earn less.

Resources

• Women's Lower Wages Worsen Their Circumstances in a Difficult Economy, National Women's Law Center, April 2010
• State-by-State Data on the Wage Gap, National Women's Law Center, April 2009
• Congress Must Act to Close the Wage Gap for Women: Facts on Women's Wages and Pending Legislation, National Women's Law Center, April 2009
• The Gender Gap by Occupation, Institute for Women's Policy Research, April 2009
• Gender Pay Gap in the Federal Workforce Narrows as Differences in Occupation, Education, and Experience Diminish, United States Government Accountability Office, March 2009
  
• Behind the Pay Gap, American Association of University Women, April 2007
• Gaps in Learning, Gaps in Earning, American Association of University Women on the pay gap among college-educated women and men, state by state, 2008
• Women's Economic Status in the States: Wide Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, and Region, Institute for Women's Policy Research
• Women's Earnings: Work Patterns Partially Explain Difference between Men's and Women's Earnings, General Accounting Office, October 2003