What’s behind the growing gender pay gap in the US?

NEW YORK (AP) — How big a setback has been for working women in the United States?

Although women who lost or quit their jobs at the height of the crisis have largely returned to the workforce, a recent finding highlights the price many paid for leaving: In 2023, the gender pay gap between men and women widened Women working full-time for the first time in 20 years year-on-year, according to a study Annual report from the US Census Bureau.

Economists trying to make sense of the data say it captures a complicated moment during the disjointed post-pandemic labor market recovery, when many women were finally working full-time again, particularly in hard-hit low-wage industries where they are overrepresented, such as hospitality , social work and care.

The news isn’t all bad: Wages rose last year for all workers, but faster for men. And while the gender pay gap has increased, it remains at 2019 levels before the pandemic hit.

In 2023, full-time working women earned 83 cents on the dollar compared to men, down from a historic high of 84 cents in 2022. The Census Bureau called it the first statistically significant expansion in the ratio since 2003.

That’s a reversal from the previous five years, in which the ratio had declined – a trend that may be due in part to an increase in average women’s earnings because so many low-wage women were pushed out of full-time jobs.

SJ Glynn, the Labor Department’s chief economist, said it was too early to say whether 2023 was an outlier or the start of a worrying new trend in the gender pay gap. However, she said that even a return to the pre-pandemic status quo was a reminder of how far behind women were in the first place and showed how the pandemic had slowed the path to gender equality.

Hispanic women in particular exemplify the complexity of this moment. According to Census Bureau data analyzed by both the National Women’s Law Center and the National Partnership for Women and Families, they were the only demographic group of women overall whose wage gap increased between 2022 and 2023 compared to white men Working full time, slightly reduced and interest groups. The wage gap increased for black and Asian women, but remained the same for white women.

Latinas have increasingly becoming a driving force in the US economy as they enter the labor market more quickly than non-Hispanic people. Between 2022 and 2023, the number of Latinas working full-time increased by 5%, while the total number of women working full-time remained the same.

Matthew Fienup, executive director of California Lutheran University’s Center for Economic Research & Forecasting, said he expects gains in wages, education levels and contributions to U.S. GDP in Latin America “to continue for the foreseeable future.” For women overall, he found that the gender pay gap has narrowed steadily since 1981, although it has occasionally widened from year to year.

“It is important not to place too much emphasis on a single year data point,” he added.

Nevertheless, the pace of progress was slow and there were periods of stagnation.

Latinas remain among the lowest paid workers – with average full-time earnings of $43,880, compared to $50,470 for black women, $60,450 for white women and $75,950 for white men – so you Rapid entry into full-time employment in 2023 contributed to a slowdown According to Liana Fox, deputy division chief in the Census Bureau’s Division of Social, Economic and Housing Statistics, average wage gains for women have increased overall, likely contributing to the expansion of the gender wage in contributed this year.

And Latina workers have been hardest hit by the pandemic, having the highest unemployment rate of any major demographic group at 20.1% in April 2020, a study found Ministry of Labor report This examined the disproportionate burden on women caused by the pandemic.

Domestic workers who are a disproportionate number of female immigrantsparticularly felt the effects. Many lost their jobs, including Ingrid Vaca, a Hispanic home care worker for older adults in Falls Church, Virginia.

Vaca, who is from La Paz, Bolivia, contracted COVID-19 multiple times and was hospitalized for a week in 2020 because she had difficulty breathing. Her test result continued to be positive even after her recovery, leaving her unable to enter her family’s homes or work for most of that year and the next.

She had no money for food or rent. “It was very hard,” she said, describing how she lost clients while she was away and still struggles to find permanent, full-time work.

The Census Bureau calculates the gender wage gap by comparing only men and women who work full-time, year-round. But data that includes part-time workers paints a bleaker picture for women, said Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families.

Latinas, for example, receive just 51 cents for every dollar paid to white men under this measure, and their gender pay gap widened from 52 cents on the dollar in 2022, according to the organization’s report, which analyzed Census Bureau microdata.

Ariane Hegewisch, program director for employment and earnings at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, said the slight narrowing in the wage gap for Latinas may be due to their presence in highest-earning occupations increasing from 13.5% last year, according to an IWPR Up 14.2% analysis of federal labor data.

However, the share of Latinas in full-time, low-wage jobs also increased in 2023, she added.

According to Seher Khawaja, director of economic justice at the national women’s civil rights organization Legal Momentum, the gender pay gap will continue to exist in the U.S. until the country addresses the structural problems that cause it.

“There are some fundamental problems that we’re really not fixing,” Khawaja said.

For example, the current economy is heavily dependent on women unpaid or underpaid care work for children and older adults. “Until we come to terms with the need to give care work the value it deserves, women will continue to be left behind,” Khawaja said.

While many Democrats and Republicans agree on the structural challenges facing women in the workforce, they have struggled to find common ground on policy solutions Expanding paid family leave and offer Protection for pregnant workers.

An ongoing battle centers on the Democrat-sponsored Paycheck Fairness Act, which would update the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by, among other things, protecting workers from retaliation for discussing their pay, a practice that advocates say helps to underwhelm workers to keep in the dark about wage discrimination.

Republicans generally opposed the bill, saying it was unnecessary and conducive to frivolous lawsuits. However, Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated her support for the Democratic-backed bill on Monday after one of its most prominent sponsors, the Equal pay icon, Lilly Ledbetter.

Pay inequality now has far-reaching effects, explained Khawaja: “It’s not just women who suffer from it. It is their families, their children, who suffer from the lack of adequate income and compensation. And this drives intergenerational cycles of poverty and insecurity.”

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