Exclusive Analysis Calculates Wage Gap’s Effect on Women’s Spending Power in All 50 States and D.C.
State-by-State Report Here; New Resource on Paid Leave and the Wage Gap Here

While women across the country have bravely declared #MeToo, elected the most diverse, female Congress in history, and are running for the nation’s highest office in record numbers, a woman employed full time, year-round in the United States is still typically paid just 80 cents for every dollar paid to a man. According to a new analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, conducted by the National Partnership for Women & Families and released for Equal Pay Day tomorrow, this is a yearly pay difference of $10,169. The nation’s persistent wage gap, which is the result of factors including gender and racial discrimination, workplace harassment, job segregation and a lack of workplace policies that support family caregiving, is especially harmful for women of color. The analysis finds that nationally, Latinas are typically paid 53 cents, Native American women 58 cents, Black women 61 cents, white, non-Hispanic women 77 cents, and Asian American women 85 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. The wage gap for mothers — who are breadwinners in half of families with children under 18 — is 71 cents compared to every dollar paid to fathers.

The National Partnership’s new study concludes that women employed full time in the United States will lose nearly $900 billion to the wage gap this year. There is a gender-based wage gap in every single state and the District of Columbia, as well as in the vast majority of the country’s congressional districts, according to the National Partnership study. The cents-on-the-dollar gap is largest in Louisiana, followed closely by Utah, Indiana and Alabama – and smallest in California and the District of Columbia. The study also quantifies the gender wage gap at the national level, the wage gap in the 25 states with the largest numbers of Black women and Latinas who work full time, and the wage gap’s detrimental effects on women’s spending power in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

“The wage gap harms women’s ability to support ourselves and our families,” said National Partnership President Debra L. Ness. “Lack of fair pay cuts across all types of jobs and industries from retail and service workers to doctors, entertainers and athletes. The wage gap does not have a single cause and therefore demands more than a single solution. Last week’s passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act in the U.S. House of Representatives is an encouraging step, but lawmakers must do more. They must raise the federal minimum wage and eliminate the sub-minimum wage for workers who rely on tips, and workers with disabilities. They should pass legislation to end sexual harassment and improve pregnancy discrimination laws. Congress should also pass national paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, and predictable schedules legislation; and increase access to high-quality, reproductive health care. Women and our families cannot afford to wait.”

Findings for each state from the National Partnership’s new wage gap analysis are available at NationalPartnership.org/gap.