The gender pay gap is getting wider, reversing progress

Da: U.S. Census Bureau; Chart: Axios VisualsMen's wages went up last year; women's incomes didn't budge, per new data out Tuesday morning.Why it matters: It's a worrying sign that the slow march toward pay equity for women is stumbling.Zoom in: The median woman working full time in 2024 earned 81% of what the median man earned — a drop of 2 percentage points from the year before and the second consecutive annual decline.The pay gap is now back to where it was in 2017, when the burgeoning #MeToo movement drew wide attention to sex discrimination.By the numbers: Men got raises this year; women did not.The median income for men, working full-time, was $71,090 in 2024, an increase of 3.7%. Women earned $57,520, essentially flat from 2023.Between the lines: Wages for workers without a high-school degree were up 5.5% last year — and that may be driving the gap, Katherine Gallagher Robbins, a senior fellow at the National Partnership for Women & Families, tells Axios.Men account for 69% full-time, year-round workers aged 25 and older without a high school degree."It's great to see men's wages rising, it's critical to make sure women don't fall farther behind, especially as the cost of living has increased," Robbins says.The big picture: The wage gap doesn't necessarily mean women earn less than men for the same types of jobs.Instead, it is a useful indicator of broad inequality between men and women in the labor market.Zoom out: Women make up the majority of low-wage workers in the U.S., partly because many are juggling paid work with caring for children. Jobs that can accommodate those schedules tend to pay less.Women are more likely to take career breaks, slowing down wage growth. Plus, jobs typically done by women often pay less than those done by a man. For example, housekeepers typically don't make us much as janitors.What to watch: There are signs that the labor market for women is worse this year — particularly for Black women who are seeing a spike in unemployment, in the wake of federal layoffs and the DEI crackdown.Hundreds of thousands of mothers also left the workforce in the first half of the year."At a time when women, including many mothers, are leaving the labor force at record rates, it is a five-alarm fire to see that the gender wage gap is widening for an unprecedented second year in a row," said Emily Martin, chief program officer at the liberal National Women's Law Center.

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