GLOBAL

Women Continue to Experience Gender Wage Gaps Worldwide

There has been little change in the full-time employee gender pay gap since 2010.

Leading causes of the gender pay gap include gender segregation in jobs, differences in educational attainment, caregiving responsibilities that fall heavily to women, a lack of pay transparency, and discrimination and bias.

The gender wage gap increases as women age.

The Gender Wage Gap Varies by Country

The average annual income for women globally is $11,500, compared to $21,500 for men.

Among OECD countries, the overall gender wage gap is 13.4%.

Korea has the widest gender wage gap at 34.1%, followed by Japan at 24.5% and Israel at 21.8%.

Belgium has the lowest gap at 3.7%, with Greece at 4.5%, and Costa Rica at 4.7%.

Some Legislatures Are Taking Action to Address Their Gender Wage Gap

The following countries have passed legislation requiring companies to take steps to address their gender wage gap:

Australia

Canada (Ontario)

France

Germany

Iceland

Ireland

Spain

Taiwan

United Kingdom

United States

Hourly, Weekly, and Annual Earnings All Show a Gender Wage Gap

There are a variety of ways to measure the gender wage gap. All of them tend to show a gap, but there are important differences to consider, which account for the range of data reported:

Comparing the hourly wages of all workers will control, to an extent, for the differences in overall hours worked, as men are more likely to work full-time and women part-time.

will control, to an extent, for the differences in overall hours worked, as men are more likely to work full-time and women part-time. Another common method is to look only at the weekly or annual earnings of women and men working full-time .

. Comparing the weekly or annual earnings of full- and part-time workers also has value, as it recognizes the wages women don’t earn because they are more often doing the unpaid work of being caregivers.

CANADA

By Every Measure, Canadian Women Face a Gender Wage Gap

Among full-time workers in 2019, women earned:

89.4% of what men earned based on average hourly wage rates.

84.2% of what men earned based on average weekly wage rates.

Among all workers (full- and part-time) in 2019, women earned:

87.9% of what men earned based on average hourly wage rates.

78.2% of what men earned based on average weekly wage rates.

Over 20 Years, the Gender Wage Gap in Canada Has Closed by Only About Seven Percentage Points

Improvement in the wage gap has been minor since 1999: women’s average full-time, weekly wages have risen from 77.0% to 84.2% of men’s in 2019

Women of Colour in Canada Experience a High Wage Gap

According to the latest Census data (2016), Canadian women of colour earn 79.7% of what Canadian men of colour earn, based on median total income for full-time workers.

Canadian women of colour earn 56.7% of what all men earn.

Among Canadian women of colour, Korean and West Asian women had the highest pay gaps earning 41.5% and 42.7% respectively of what all men earn.

EUROPE

The Gender Pay Gap Varies Significantly Across the EU

In 2018, Estonia had the highest gender wage gap in the EU-28, with women earning 22.7% less than men, based on average gross hourly earnings.

Romania had the lowest gap, at 3.0%.

The average gender wage gap across the EU-28 was 15.7%.

The Gender Wage Gap in Selected Countries Country Percentage Belgium 6.0% France 15.5% Germany 20.9% Netherlands 14.8% Sweden 12.2% Switzerland (2017) 17.0% UK 19.9%

UNITED STATES

A Gender Wage Gap Exists in the United States No Matter How It Is Counted

Women earned 81.6% of what men earned in 2018, based on the real median earnings for full-time, year-round workers.

This is compared to 60.2% in 1980.

Women earned a median of $45,097 annually in 2018, and men earned $55,291.

Women earned 81.5% of what men earned in 2019, based on the median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary workers.

This is compared to 62.3% in 1979.

Women earned a median of $821 weekly in 2019, while men earned $1,007.

Women earned 85.0% of what men earned in 2018, based on median hourly earnings of full-time and part-time workers.

This is compared to 64% in 1980.

The Gender Wage Gap Increases With Age

Younger women (16–24 years old) are closer to pay equity. In 2018, these women earned 90.8% of what men in the same age group earned, based on median weekly earnings.

However, there is a wider gap among older workers (over 65 years old). In this age group, women earned just 77.2% of men’s median weekly earnings for full-time wages and salaries in 2018.

Most Women of Color Have a Higher Gender Wage Gap Than White Women

In 2019, Latinas and Black women had the lowest median weekly earnings compared to all racial/ethnic groups ($642 and $704).

Asian and White men had the highest ($1,336 and $1,036).

Latinas earn 48.1% of what Asian men earn and 62.0% of what White men earn.

Black women earn 52.7% of what Asian men earn and 68.0% of what White men earn.

Women, Especially Women of Color, Experience a Significant Cumulative Lifetime Wage Gap in the United States

Average Earnings Lost Over a 40-Year Period Race/Ethnicity Earnings Lost Latinas $1,121,440 Native women $977,720 Black women $946,120 White, non-Latinas $555,000 Asian women $360,400 Total, all women $406,760

College-educated Millennial women are projected to lose more than a million dollars ($1,066,721) because of the gender wage gap, based on full-time year-round work.

The Gender Wage Gap in the United States Varies But Is Most Pronounced in Highest-Paying Fields

The biggest wage gap in the United States is in the finance and insurance industry. Even though women account for more than half of all employees in those industries, they earn only $0.62 for every $1 men make.

The only industry close to parity is construction. Women earn about $0.99 for every $1 men earn.

In 2019, women in full-time management, professional, and related occupations earned 73.7% of what men earned.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Full list of Catalyst Quick Takes.

Catalyst, Ask Catalyst Express: The Gender Pay Gap.

Lorraine Hariton, “Employers: Fix the Pay Gap, or You’ll be Left Behind,” Catalyst, April 1, 2019.

Canada

Labour Market Information Council, How Much Do They Make? New Evidence on the Early Career Earnings of Canadian Post-Secondary Education Graduates by Credential & Field of Study (2020).

Statistics Canada, The Gender Wage Gap in Canada: 1998-2018 (2019).

Europe

Eurostat, “Gender Pay Gap Statistics.”

United States

AAUW, Equal Pay Laws by State.

AAUW, The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap: Fall 2019 Update (Fall 2019).

“The Pay Check,” Bloomberg, podcast audio.

David Anderson, Margret V. Bjarnnadóttir, Cristian Dezso, and David Gaddis Ross, “Why Companies’ Attempts to Close the Gender Pay Gap Often Fail,” Harvard Business Review, January 21, 2019.

Janice Traflet and Robert E. Wright, “America Doesn’t Just Have a Gender Pay Gap. It Has a Gender Wealth Gap.” The Washington Post, April 2, 2019.

Tamara Lytle, “Closing the Gender Pay Gap,” HR Magazine, June 4, 2019.

How to cite this product: Catalyst, Quick Take: Women’s Earnings – The Pay Gap (March 2, 2020).