Washington (CNN) Stephen Moore, President Donald Trump's pick for the Federal Reserve, said Tuesday the biggest problem to the US economy over the years is the decline in "male earnings."

"The biggest problem I see in the economy over the last 25 years is what has happened to male earnings -- for black males and white males as well. They've been declining and that is, I think, a big problem," Moore said during an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box."

He continued: "Look I want everybody's wages to rise, of course, but you know, people are talking about women's earnings -- they've risen. The problem, actually, has been the steady decline in male earnings, and I think we should pay attention to that because I think that has very negative consequences for the economy and for society."

Data collected by the Department of Labor shows median earnings have increased more rapidly for women than men over the last 25 years, but wages have gone up for both those groups over that time frame. Much of the political conversation in recent years has been about the disparity in pay for men and women doing the same or similar work, rather than generally.

Moore, a conservative economic commentator and former Trump campaign adviser, has been under scrutiny over columns he wrote decades ago dismissing women's participation in professional sports and specifically attacking women athletes over pay, first surfaced last week by CNN's KFile