For those of you unfamiliar with the gender pay gap and the implications, let me start with the facts.
As of 2024, women in the U.S. earn about 84 cents for every dollar earned by white men working full-time in comparable roles. This gap has widened for the first time in 20 years.
Comparative Earnings: Black women earn 67 cents, Indigenous women earn 59 cents, and Hispanic women earn 51 cents for every dollar white men earn.
Although the gender wage gap is often discussed using dollars and cents, it greatly affects women’s earnings in the long term because it compounds over a lifetime.This is important. “Over the course of a 40-year career, if the wage gap remains unchanged, women working full time, year-round would lose approximately $462,000 in average earnings, and all women workers would lose an average of $566,800 when compared with white, non-Hispanic men.”
On a global scale, narrowing the difference in wages between men and women in the labor force can boost the world’s economy by about 7% — or $7 trillion, according to a Moody’s Analytics report.
Here in the United States, the gender wage gap has significant economic implications, including lost income that directly reduces economic growth. Reduced earnings mean less disposable income, which curtails consumer spending and hinders economic mobility—key drivers of economic and personal expansion. Keep in mind, in 2024, women still make 85 percent of household purchasing decisions.
I reached out to Lauren Buckley, co-founder at The Hush Collaborative, a women-founded strategy consultancy focused on organizational development, for her insights on the causes of the gap and possible solutions. I’ve included her responses.
Read the full article on Substack.com
Recent Comments