--- title: Men's Minimum Paycheck Expectations Are $24,000 Higher Than Women's description: The difference between the minimum salary a man will accept for a job and what a woman will accept is growing, according to a new survey. authors: - name: Sarah Hansen role: Senior Writer url: https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/ bio: Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. Previously, she covered economic policy and capital markets on the breaking news desk at Forbes. education: Northwestern University, New York University at_money_since: 2021 articles: 347 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-m-hansen/ former_staff: true published: '2022-08-26T14:45:03.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T13:06:38.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - News word_count: 471 canonical: https://money.com/minimum-job-salary-gender-differences/ 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/). ![Photo Collage of four people sitting waiting for a job interview, with a resume and money in the background](https://img.money.com/2022/08/News-Male-Workers-Demand-More-Money.jpg?crop=0px%2C253px%2C2880px%2C1620px&quality=85) There’s a growing difference between the minimum salary a man will accept for a job and the minimum salary a woman will accept, according to [new survey data](https://www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomics/sce/labor#/expectations-job-search16) from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Released this week, the poll tracks what economists call the “reservation wage” — the lowest paycheck a person is willing to accept for a new job. Overall, the New York Fed found the average reservation wage of the American worker has climbed to $72,873, up from $68,954 a year ago. It’s no wonder: Rising prices for [groceries](https://money.com/grocery-prices-biggest-increase-1979-inflation/), [gas](https://money.com/gas-prices-painful-facts/) and other essentials have made life significantly more expensive, and in many ways, the labor market has tilted in favor of workers amid the [Great Resignation](https://money.com/record-high-workers-quitting-jobs/). But while the difference in the reservation wage between men and women is nothing new, the data shows that the gap is widening. The reservation wage for men rose to $86,259 in July, a record high, from $83,306 in March. Meanwhile, the reservation wage for women declined to $59,543 from $61,676 in that same period. That means the lowest salary a man thinks is acceptable at a new job is about 37% higher than the lowest wage a woman does. In November 2019, before the pandemic, the difference was 31%. Although women's wages have always lagged behind men's — women today earn about [82 cents](https://blog.dol.gov/2021/03/19/5-facts-about-the-state-of-the-gender-pay-gap) for every dollar earned by a man — it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for the change from 2019 to 2022. It could be partially linked to the fact that women were [hit harder](https://www.brookings.edu/essay/why-has-covid-19-been-especially-harmful-for-working-women/) by pandemic layoffs, and millions of women left the workforce entirely to take on care responsibilities at home. They are returning to work, but a May [analysis](https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/05/03/as-women-return-to-jobs-remote-work-could-lock-in-gains) by the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts found mothers of small children were re-entering the workforce at slower rates than fathers of small children. It's not all about gender — age influences salary expectations, too. Younger workers have also seen outsized gains when it comes to their pay floors. The reservation wage for people 45 or younger is now $76,971, up from $62,273 at the beginning of the pandemic. The New York Fed survey contained responses from about 1,300 people contacted on a monthly basis. If the numbers seem high, remember: Just because these minimum desired salaries are what employees *want*, it doesn't mean that's what they're actually *earning*. American workers aged 16 and older earned a median of [$1,041 per week](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.t03.htm) in the second quarter of 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's roughly $54,000 per year. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/minimum-job-salary-gender-differences/#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": "Men's Minimum Paycheck Expectations Are $24,000 Higher Than Women's" } ] }, { "@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/minimum-job-salary-gender-differences/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/minimum-job-salary-gender-differences/", "name": "Men's Minimum Paycheck Expectations Are $24,000 Higher Than Women's", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-08-26T14:45:03.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/minimum-job-salary-gender-differences/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/minimum-job-salary-gender-differences/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T13:06:38.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Men's Minimum Paycheck Expectations Are $24,000 Higher Than Women's", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/08/News-Male-Workers-Demand-More-Money.jpg?crop=0px%2C253px%2C2880px%2C1620px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "News-Male-Workers-Demand-More-Money" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah Hansen", "url": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/#author", "description": "Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. 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