BREAKING DOWN THE

GENDER WAGE GAP

Women who worked full-time, 

year-round in 2014 earned

on average, 

of men's median 

annual earnings

Women earn less than men.

Over the years, the wage gap has gotten smaller. 

But in the past decade or so, 

progress has stalled.

Many factors contribute to the gender 

wage gap, and women’s achievements 

in certain areas may have helped 

reduce it. For example . . .

higher educational 

attainment...

More education is often associated with higher

earnings. Historically, women had lower levels

of college education than men, which could

have contributed to the overall wage gap.

However, in recent decades women have

outpaced men in educational attainment:

between 1975 and 2015, the share of women in

the labor force age 25+ with a college degree

increased from 14% to 41%.

Over those 40 years, women went from

graduating college at a much lower rate

than men to actually exceeding their rate.

...and greater labor 

force participation

The increased participation of women in the

labor force has both reflected and contributed

to a major social transformation over the past

several decades, and research suggests that it

is associated with the narrowing of the wage

gap. In 1965, only about 40% of women of

ages 16 and up were in the labor force. By

1999, when labor force participation was at its

peak, around 60% of women were in the labor

force. Despite some decline in the past few

years, women’s labor force participation rate

is still 10 percentage points higher today than

it was in 1975.

In spite of these gains, 

the wage gap persists due to 

a number of other factors, including . . .

gender segregation

across occupations...

Although women are now working in more 

fields than ever, they are still more likely to 

work in lower-paying jobs than men are, and 

they remain underrepresented in many 

occupations. Moreover, even when they work 

in the same occupations, many women continue 

to earn less than their male counterparts.

Even as women have accessed more jobs in 

higher-paying sectors, they are still underrepresented in many of the highest-paying 

occupations. For example, women only 

make up less than 1 in 3 chief executives, 

and just over 1 in 6 software developers.

...and women’s 

unpaid work

More women now participate in the labor 

force, yet they are also more likely to spend 

time performing unpaid household and 

caregiving responsibilities than men, which 

may erode their wage-earning potential. For 

example, women are the majority of those 

providing elder care and are over twice as likely 

to perform housework on an average day as

men. This imbalance of unpaid household

work persists for full-time working women

and mothers.

These additional duties, combined with the

lack of adequate workplace supports like paid 

family leave, may affect the number of hours 

women work in the paid labor force and the 

types of jobs that they hold. In 2015, only 12% 

of private industry workers had access to paid

family leave and only 10% received child care

assistance from their employer.

This is not an exhaustive list, and some causes for 

the wage gap remain unexplained by existing research. 

For example, gender discrimination may be responsible for some 

portion of the unexplained wage gap. However, these are some of the 

major factors that have been barriers to women's earning potential and pay 

equality. And there is more to the story: women of color continue to face 

significant racial wage gaps on top of the gender wage gap.*

To ensure the health of our economy and 

the economic security of our nation's families, 

we must do more to eliminate the gender wage gap.

Sources

†Estimates for 2013 onward reflect redesigned income questions.

1U.S. Census Bureau, 1965-2015 Annual Social and Economic Supplements

2U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey

3U.S. Buearu of Labor Statistics, 2014 American Time Use Survey

* The gender wage gap is bigger for black and Hispanic women 

compared to white, non-Hispanic men

WOMEN'S BUREAU

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR dol.gov/wb