Iowa women earn $10,637 less than men on average — one of the nation's wider gaps in pay, according to a new analysis released this week.

The American Association of University Women’s annual report on the gender pay gap ranked Iowa 31st for its gap between the sexes. In Iowa, women earn 79 cents for every dollar men earn, according to the group's analysis of U.S. Census data. That's slightly worse than the national average.

Nationally, women working full-time earn 80 cents for every dollar paid to a man — "a figure that has changed by less than a nickel during the 21st century," the report says.

"Right now, Iowa is 31st out of 50 states and the District of Columbia. So that’s not great," said Ann Gale, communications director for the AAUW's Iowa chapter. "There are some legal protections in Iowa, so we're not the worst. But there are some things that could happen legislatively to improve things."

Gale, a retired school psychologist who lives in Grimes, said the pay gap doesn't seem to be top of mind for Iowa policymakers.

"I haven’t seen attempts to remedy this at a legislative level," she said. "And if that were to happen, it would be an indication that things are being taken seriously."

Iowa law already includes equal pay and anti-discrimination provisions. But AAUW would like to see further protections, including requirements that employers track wage gap data and prohibitions against retaliation and discrimination for employees who discuss wages. Gale said prohibiting employers from requiring job candidates' salary history could also curb perpetuation of the pay gap.

"That would be a good step," she said. "If an employer in an interview asks somebody what did you get before, it's going to let them know they might be able to get by with paying a woman less if they were paid less than men before."

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Nationally, AAUW estimates that women collectively lose $500 billion each year from the pay gap. The national median salary for women working full-time was $41,977 in 2017. The median salary for American men that year was $52,146.

"While the nation’s unemployment rate is down, and the number of women working is up, the wage gap is sadly remaining stagnant," Kim Churches, chief executive officer of AAUW, said in a news release. "It’s unacceptable. There is no gender differentiation when it comes to quality, skills, and talent. It’s time to close this gap and give every woman in Iowa and across the country the salaries they deserve."

The pay gap persists across every age group, all demographics, and nearly every line of work. The void trends higher for women of color. Even when women pursue higher-paid occupations, they receive lower pay across the board, the report found.

The gap widens within certain professions, particularly for female financial managers, who earn 65 percent of what their male counterparts earn. Likewise, women employed as physicians and surgeons and marketing and sales managers make 71 percent of the salary of males in those occupations.

In 2017, median annual earnings for men in Iowa were $50,295 compared to $39,658 for women — an earnings ratio of 79 percent. Last year, the association's analysis of 2016 data found that Iowa women made 77 cents on the dollar compared to men. The state was ranked 41st that year, though AAUW researchers warned that year-to-year figures among states fluctuate and may not be statistically significant.

In 2016, a Des Moines Register analysis found a persistent wage gap among those who work in Iowa state government.

Median annual pay for women working in state government was about $5,300 less than that of men, a gap that has changed little over the past decade, the Register found.

► More:Women working in Iowa state government still earn less than men, Register investigation shows

Experts explain some of the wage gaps by occupational segregation. That's the idea that women often dominate lower-paid professions like teaching.

"There still are jobs that are largely men's jobs and there are still jobs largely filled by women," said Peter Fisher, research director at the Iowa Policy Project. "That situation has improved but that's a big part of it that they're in different kinds of jobs. Jobs historically filled by women tend to pay less."

From the late 1970s to the late 1990s, Fisher said Iowa's wage gap narrowed significantly before progress went stagnant.

"Since then," he said, "it’s hardly changed."