--- title: 'The Gender Pay Gap Won''t Close for Another 33 Years (at Least): Report' description: Despite significant improvement in earnings since the passage of the Equal Pay Act, women in the U.S. are decades away from full pay equity. authors: - name: Mary Ellen Cagnassola role: Reporter url: https://money.com/author/mary-ellen-cagnassola/ bio: Mary Ellen (M.E.) Cagnassola is a former reporter at Money, where she covered Social Security, retirement, housing, and employment. Her work reflects her commitment to service and equity in consumer finance. education: Rutgers University, BA Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 205 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes former_staff: true published: '2023-06-09T19:35:44.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T12:47:12.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - News word_count: 476 canonical: https://money.com/gender-pay-gap-close-2056/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![woman's hand reaching out for a dollar bill that is out flying of reach](https://img.money.com/2023/06/News-Women-will-face-pay-gap-for-next-30-years.jpg?crop=0px%2C23px%2C2880px%2C1620px&quality=85) Sixty years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act, the landmark U.S. labor law forbidding pay discrimination based on sex, [women](https://money.com/gen-z-gender-pay-gap-salary-expectations/) have made a lot of progress in the workforce — but a new report shows they’re still decades (and probably more) away from achieving pay parity with men. [Analysis](https://www.americanprogress.org/article/what-to-know-about-the-gender-wage-gap-as-the-equal-pay-act-turns-60/#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20full%2Dtime%2C,an%20improvement%20of%2040%20cents.) from the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, found that the effects of pay inequity between sexes runs so deep that earnings for median full-time, year-round women workers won’t be on par with men for at least 33 more years. [Women in the workforce](https://money.com/from-half-a-loaf-to-three-quarters-heres-what-hasnt-changed-for-working-women-in-the-past-50-years/) are also still struggling to get on equal footing when it comes to their occupations and opportunities. That’s an optimistic estimate — as the report notes, the path to pay equity is hardly straightforward. - For women of color, the pay disparity is wider, and the road to achieve equity is longer. Black and Latina women who worked full-time throughout the year earned 67 cents and 57 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men, respectively. - In 2021, the typical full-time, year-round-working woman brought home $9,954 less than her male counterparts. - Cumulatively, women in the workforce have lost $61 trillion in wages since 1967. For context, the current U.S. government debt is roughly $31 trillion. ## Keep in mind Women are largely underrepresented in higher-paying fields and roles and overrepresented in lower-paying occupations, as [research](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/03/01/gender-pay-gap-facts/) from Pew Research Center shows. They’re more likely than men to have to leave the workforce to raise children, which can hurt their earnings. Another [report](https://www.urban.org/research/publication/what-lifetime-employment-related-cost-women-providing-family-care), from the Urban Institute, found that women who care for children or other dependents forgo an average of $295,000 in income in their lifetimes. ## Why it’s important The U.S. still has a ton of work to do if it wants to bridge the [pay gap](https://money.com/how-to-address-gender-pay-gap-in-your-company/) between men and women — and especially for women of color. But it’s more complicated than just ensuring that men and women are paid equal wages for equal work: Factors like gendered expectations regarding child rearing and caretaking can have a massive impact on women’s success in the labor force. [Men Shop to Treat Themselves Just as Much as Women — and Spend More Doing It](https://money.com/men-treat-themselves-spend-more/) [Why 62% of Workers Want to Quit Their Jobs (or Already Have)](https://money.com/why-workers-quit-jobs-reasons/) [Inflation and Recession Fears Have Workers Contributing Less to Their 401(k)s](https://money.com/inflation-recession-fears-hitting-401k-contributions/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/gender-pay-gap-close-2056/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Career Advice", "item": "https://money.com/career-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Salaries and Wages", "item": "https://money.com/salaries-and-wages/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Gender Pay Gap Won't Close for Another 33 Years (at Least): Report" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/gender-pay-gap-close-2056/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/gender-pay-gap-close-2056/", "name": "The Gender Pay Gap Won't Close for Another 33 Years (at Least): Report", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-06-09T19:35:44.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/gender-pay-gap-close-2056/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/gender-pay-gap-close-2056/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T12:47:12.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "The Gender Pay Gap Won't Close for Another 33 Years (at Least): Report", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/06/News-Women-will-face-pay-gap-for-next-30-years.jpg?crop=0px%2C23px%2C2880px%2C1620px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "News-Women-will-face-pay-gap-for-next-30-years" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mary Ellen Cagnassola", "url": "https://money.com/author/mary-ellen-cagnassola/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/mary-ellen-cagnassola/#author", "description": "Mary Ellen (M.E.) Cagnassola is a former reporter at Money, where she covered Social Security, retirement, housing, and employment. 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