The gender wage gap persists at all parts of the wage distributionAverage hourly wages at select points in the wage distribution, by gender, 2022
Men | Women | |
---|---|---|
Low-wage<br>(10th percentile) | $13.55 | $12.00 |
Middle-wage<br>(avg 40th-60th) | $24.77 | $20.96 |
High-wage<br>(90th percentile) | $65.08 | $50.03 |
Overall average | $35.82 | $27.86 |
Notes: See Gould and deCourcy (2023) for details on wage group specification.
Source: EPI analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group microdata. For more information on the data sample see EPI's State of Working America Data Library.
Women are paid less than men at every education level
Despite gains in educational attainment, women still face a significant wage gap. Among workers, women are more likely to graduate from college than men, and are more likely to receive a graduate degree than men. Even so, at every education level, women are paid less than men, as shown in Figure B.
The wage gap widens with higher levels of educational attainment. Among workers who have only a high school diploma, women are paid 78.6% of what men are paid. Among workers who have a college degree, the share is 70.2%, and among workers who have an advanced degree, it is 69.8%. Furthermore, women with advanced degrees are paid less per hour, on average, than men with college degrees. Even straight out of college, women with a college degree are paid $4.50 less per hour than their male peers.
Women are paid less than men at every education level
Average hourly wages, by gender and education, 2022
Education level | Men | Women |
---|---|---|
Less than high school | $17.99 | $14.33 |
High school | $24.08 | $18.93 |
Some college | $27.96 | $21.76 |
College | $49.01 | $34.39 |
Advanced degree | $63.51 | $44.34 |
If the overall gender pay gap isn’t enough cause for alarm, the wage gaps for Black and Hispanic women relative to white men are even larger due to compounded discrimination and occupational segregation based on both gender and race/ethnicity. In Figure C, we compare middle wages —or the average hourly wage between the 40th and 60th percentile of each group’s wage distribution—for white, Black, Hispanic, and Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) women with that of white men.3
White women and AAPI women are paid 82.5% and 93.4%, respectively, of what non-Hispanic white men are paid. Black women are paid only 69.5% of white men’s wages at the middle, a gap of $8.35 on an hourly basis which translates to roughly $17,000 less annual earnings for a full-time worker. For Hispanic women, the gap is even larger: Hispanic women are paid only 64.1% of white men’s wages, an hourly wage gap of $9.84. For a full-time worker, that gap is over $20,000 a year.