What You Should Know About the 2023 Gender Wage Gap

Women’s employment and labor force participation rates remain at record highs.¹ Even so, gaps between men’s and women’s wages widened between 2022 and 2023, and most women of color continue to experience the largest wage gaps. This report provides an updated analysis of the annual income data published by the U.S. Census Bureau² and offers key takeaways on how the gender wage gap affected women across race, ethnicity, and age in 2023.

In this analysis, the gender wage gap is defined as the ratio of median annual earnings between men and women employed across all industries.³ Wage gap calculations include median annual earnings for workers ages 15 and older. A full-time, year-round worker is a person who worked a minimum of 35 hours per week (full time) for at least 50 weeks during the previous calendar year (year round).⁴ “All workers” are defined as those who work full time, part time, and part year.⁵ The Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) microdata are not yet available, so this analysis does not include causal inference of the factors driving the widening wage gap. For all groups except Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) women and American Indian and Alaska Native women, the author’s calculations are based on an analysis of data from the Current Population Survey. The author calculated the gender wage gap for NHPI women and American Indian and Alaska Native women using data from the American Community Survey.

Working women face a range of factors that contribute to a persistent gender wage gap across nearly every occupation—including gender-based pay discrimination, occupational segregation, and caregiving responsibilities that women disproportionately undertake. In order to close the gender wage gap, it’s important to understand what it means for working women and their families.

Between 2022 and 2023, among all workers,⁶ the wage gap expanded by 3 cents for women, who typically earned 75 cents for every dollar men earned, or a median annual income of $42,110, which was $14,170 below that earned by men. For full-time, year-round workers, the gap widened by 1 cent: Women earned just 83 cents for every dollar that men made working full time, year round, or a median annual income of $55,240, which was $11,550 less than the median annual income of men.

The rate of progress on narrowing the gender wage gap has been minimal since 2000⁷—a reality made clear with the widening of the wage gap in 2023.⁸ On the current trajectory for full-time, year-round workers, it would take women another 45 years to close the wage gap: If the gender wage gap continues on the same path it took from 2000 to 2023, it would take until 2068 for it to close for women working full time, year round.⁹

While American households experienced a notable rise in median annual income and the official poverty rate declined between 2022 and 2023,¹⁰ income growth has not been distributed equally between men and women; in particular, women experienced smaller increases.

For example, even though both men and women working full time, year round saw an increase in real median earnings between 2022 and 2023, men’s wage growth was substantially higher: Men’s earnings increased by 3 percent, while women’s earnings increased by only 1.5 percent.¹¹ Among all workers, real median earnings for women declined by 2 percent between 2022 and 2023, while earnings for men increased by 2.6 percent.¹²

These outcomes can be attributed to systemic factors driving the gender wage gap that exist in almost every occupation and level of education, including:

• Gendered differences in jobs worked¹³ and availability of work hours due to unequal distribution of familial and caregiving responsibilities between men and women.¹⁴
• The lack of access to affordable and high-quality child care.¹⁵
• Occupational segregation, where women are overwhelmingly represented in low-paying jobs.¹⁶
• Gender-based pay discrimination that influences employers to pay women less than men for the same work.¹⁷

Each of these systemic factors also contributes to women experiencing higher rates of poverty than men.¹⁸ Additionally, millions of women work part time each year, and women are more likely to work part time than men.¹⁹This is partially attributed to the unpaid caregiving labor women and mothers are expected to provide that their male counterparts are not.²⁰ In 2023, nearly 20.5 million women worked part time—a 7 percent increase from the previous year.²¹ Even though women saw a greater increase in employment overall than men (1.6 percent compared with 1 percent),²² men had a larger percentage increase in part-time work (7.9 percent).²³ The fact that men earn higher wages than women, even in part time or part year work,²⁴ may mean that this growth played a role in the widening gap, but the ASEC microdata release is necessary to confirm this hypothesis.

The widening of the gender wage gap is just another reminder that women are in critical need of policy solutions that will improve working conditions and pay equity.²⁵ Pairing good jobs with necessary reforms such as paid family and medical leave, affordable and accessible child care, investments in caregiver supports, salary transparency laws, and policies that address the occupational segregation that disproportionately keeps women—particularly women of color—employed in lower-paying jobs²⁶ is the path forward for pay equity.

The gender wage gap perpetuates systemic inequities rooted in the economy across intersecting lines of race, ethnicity, gender, motherhood status, and immigration status.²⁷ In aggregate, all wage gaps for women of color widened between 2022²⁸ and 2023, with the exception of a small, 1-cent narrowing of the gap for Hispanic women working full time, year round and for all NHPI women workers.

Between 2022²⁹ and 2023, among full-time, year-round workers and all workers, Black women and Asian women saw the largest increases in wage gaps compared with white, non-Hispanic men. Black and Asian women working full time, year round saw a 3-cent and 5-cent increase, and among all workers, a 2-cent and 6-cent increase, respectively. However, Asian women still have the highest median annual income when compared with white, non-Hispanic men. Among all workers, Native American women also experienced a significant, 3-cent widening of their wage gap.

Black, Hispanic, Native American, and NHPI women continue to experience the largest wage gaps when compared with white, non-Hispanic men. For every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men working full time, year round in 2023, Hispanic and Native American women were each paid just 58 cents, and Black and NHPI women were paid 66 cents and 65 cents, respectively. Among all workers, Hispanic and Native American women earned 51 cents and 52 cents, and Black and NHPI women earned 64 cents and 61 cents, respectively, for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. (see Figure 1)

Many factors contribute to larger wage gaps for women of color, including the economic disparities that they face as a result of intersecting biases. For example, women of color are disproportionately employed in low-wage jobs, more likely to work fewer hours or part time to accommodate unpaid caregiving and familial obligations, and tend to be the primary or sole breadwinners for their families.³⁰

Additionally, while the wage gap for all Asian women is smaller than that of other racial groups, many subgroups of Asian women experience larger wage gaps than Asian women as an aggregate population.³¹ For example, in 2020, Nepali and Filipina women working full time, year round typically made 63 cents and 78 cents, respectively, for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.³²

Although the gender wage gap is often discussed using dollars and cents, it greatly affects women’s earnings in the long term because it compounds over a lifetime.³³ Over the course of a 40-year career, if the wage gap remains unchanged, women working full time, year round would lose approximately $462,000 in average earnings, and all women workers would lose an average of $566,800 when compared with white, non-Hispanic men. Unsurprisingly, these losses are considerably larger for most women of color, including Black, Hispanic, Native American, and NHPI women in comparison with white, non-Hispanic men—costing all these groups of women working full time, year round more than $1 million in earnings losses over a 40-year career. (see Figure 2) The widening of the gender wage gap will continue to exacerbate these losses over time, further preventing women from building savings and economic security for themselves and their families.³⁴

Overall, women working full time, year round earned a median annual income below that of men working full time, year round in every age group defined in the Census Bureau’s income data. Additionally, wage gaps widen with age and are therefore much larger for older women. For example, among full-time, year-round workers, women ages 25 to 44 were paid $56,420 per year, or 86 percent of what men in the same age group made, whereas women ages 45 to 64 earned $60,220, or 79 percent of what their male counterparts made. Women ages 65 and older working full time, year round were paid even less—$52,600 per year, just 78 percent of men’s earnings in this age group. (see Figure 3) Wage gaps among nearly all age groups of women working full time, year round expanded between 2022³⁵ and 2023, except for a 1-cent narrowing for women ages 45 to 64 and an unchanged gap for women ages 65 and older.

In nearly every intersection of age, race, and ethnicity, women working full time, year round made less than their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts. (see Figure 3) Black and Hispanic women working full time, year round earn some of the lowest wages of any age and race group when compared with white non-Hispanic men. This is more prevalent among older women: In 2023, Black women ages 45 to 64 earned an average of $53,680, or 63 percent of white, non-Hispanic men’s income, and Hispanic women ages 45 to 64 earned only $44,200, or 51 percent of white, non-Hispanic men’s income.

Despite older women becoming a large and growing share of the labor force over the past two decades, they experience larger wage gaps that may be due to a higher likelihood of working in more low-wage, occupationally segregated professions; experiencing age and gender discrimination; and having limited access to job training.³⁶ Looking forward, older women are projected to represent a larger share of the labor force by 2031,³⁷ underscoring the importance of policies—including strengthening protections against age discrimination and addressing the needs of older women in workforce development programs—that would boost older women’s wages.³⁸

Compared with men, a higher percentage of women were in low-wage jobs in 2023. For example, many government assistance programs help people access benefits, such as food assistance and Medicaid coverage, if they fall within income ranges typically between 100 percent and 150 percent of the federal poverty line;⁴⁶ in 2023, this annual income range was between $14,580 and $21,870 for an individual.⁴⁷ The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, for instance, generally requires that monthly household income is at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty line,⁴⁸ which was approximately $19,000 per year for an individual in 2023.⁴⁹

Among all workers, 20.3 percent of women, compared with 13.9 percent of men, made less than $20,000 in annual wages. A larger share of all women workers (38.6 percent) were also paid less than $32,500 annually compared with men (27.1 percent), and for those working full time, year round, 19.1 percent of women, compared with 13.4 percent of men, earned less than this amount—which is slightly higher than the median annual wage of waiters and waitresses.⁵⁰ (see Figure 4)

Waiters, waitresses, and bartenders comprise more than half of the tipped workforce.⁵¹ While the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, the subminimum wage standard for tipped workers is only $2.13 per hour.⁵² Women are disproportionately segregated into low-paying jobs,⁵³ which contributes significantly to the gender wage gap, and these jobs are more likely to perpetuate discrimination and harassment at work.⁵⁴ For instance, in 2019, women accounted for more than two-thirds of tipped workers,⁵⁵ who experience higher rates of sexual harassment in the restaurant industry compared with nontipped workers.⁵⁶

Policymakers seeking to improve low-paying jobs should begin with raising the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour and eliminating the subminimum wage, which could be transformative for women by reducing gender wage gaps, particularly for Black and Latina women.⁵⁷ For instance, research found that increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour in 2021 would have led to Black women experiencing the most significant reduction in their pay gap on record.⁵⁸ Additionally, an analysis by the National Women’s Law Center found that as of 2018, the wage gap was 33 percent smaller for women working full time, year round in “one fair wage” states, where employers are required to pay tipped workers the regular minimum wage before tips, when compared with states that have a federal $2.13 tipped minimum wage standard.⁵⁹Furthermore, policymakers must increase pathways into high-paying jobs to ensure that women are equally represented in these occupations.⁶⁰

The widening of the gender wage gap poses significant short-term and long-term costs to women and their families. This is particularly alarming for women of color, who bear the disproportionate costs of significantly larger wage gaps. A first step for policymakers to close the widened gender wage gap begins with advancing the Paycheck Fairness Act—a landmark piece of legislation that will safeguard and strengthen existing equal pay protections, prohibit discriminatory practices such as retaliation against workers, and place limitations on employers’ reliance on salary history in hiring.⁶¹ Additionally, policymakers should prioritize work-family policies to ensure that women—who primarily take on caregiving roles and family obligations—have access to essential workplace accommodations when addressing care responsibilities. Among these policies are access to paid sick days⁶² and the universal paid family and medical leave program,⁶³ which would help reduce unfair disadvantages and allow women to fully participate in the labor market—eventually narrowing the gender wage gap by helping women reach pay equity.

The author would like to thank Jessica Vela for her research support and Sara Estep, Natalie Baker, Kate Kelly, and Emily Gee for their feedback and contributions to this report.