Bridging The Wage Gap: Men and Women In The Workplace

Employers in the United States have come a long way in bridging the gender pay gap — but the fact is that it still exists. In 1979, women earned 62% as much as men, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio gradually increased through the next two decades, but peaked at 81% in 2005 and 2006 and has stayed relatively flat since then. Some explain the discrepancy in earnings with the fact that women tend to be the ones who put their careers on hold, work part-time or drop out of the workforce entirely to raise their children or care for elderly family members. Others point to the so-called glass ceiling:  the fact that men in top executive functions still outnumber women, and as a result, there are fewer women in the highest-paid positions in corporate America, while at the same time women tend to be “clustered” in lower-paying jobs.

We dissect men’s versus women’s earnings as reported by the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics in our latest infographic.