Gender Pay Gap:
Definition, Uses & Comparison

The gender pay gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are employed. In most countries, women are paid less than men for the same work. The gap is typically measured in two ways: the non-adjusted pay gap, which represents the overall difference in yearly or hourly earnings between male and female workers, and the adjusted pay gap, which accounts for factors such as hours worked, occupations chosen, education attained, and job experience.

According to the OECD and Eurostat, the gender pay gap is defined as the relative difference in average gross hourly or annual earnings between men and women within an economy. In the United States, for example, women working full-time earn approximately 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. Globally, the unadjusted gender pay gap stands at approximately 68.5%, meaning women earn roughly 68.5% of what men earn on average.

Related terms: wage gap, equal pay, pay equity, earnings disparity

The gender pay gap is calculated using the median or mean average difference between the remuneration for all working men and women in a chosen sample. It is represented as either a percentage or a ratio of the difference between average gross hourly or annual earnings of male and female employees as a percentage of male gross earnings.

Different metrics are used depending on the study. Some analyses compare hourly wages of all workers, including full-time and part-time employees, while others restrict the calculation to full-time, year-round workers only. For example, a 2025 analysis by Pew Research Center found that in the United States, women earned about 85% of what men earned across hourly earnings for full-time and part-time workers combined.

Some countries calculate the gap using only the full-time working population, while others base it on a sample from the entire working population, including part-time workers. In the latter case, the full-time equivalent (FTE) is used to obtain remuneration for an equal amount of paid hours worked. Non-governmental organizations also apply the calculation to various samples by ethnicity, city, job, or within a single organization.

The gender pay gap is caused by a combination of social, economic, and structural factors that reduce women's earning capacity over their lifetimes. These factors include occupational segregation, discrimination, parenthood and the motherhood penalty, gender norms, differences in work experience and education, and differences in working hours.

Occupational segregation refers to the concentration of women in lower-paying industries and roles. Women are overrepresented in sectors such as education, health care, personal care, and administrative support, which typically pay less than male-dominated fields like engineering, technology, and construction. A 2022 study by Folbre et al. found that the concentration of women in care occupations contributes significantly to the gender pay gap, as these roles face wage penalties despite their importance.

Discrimination and bias also play a role. A 2015 meta-analysis found that men were preferred for male-dominated jobs, while a 2018 audit study found that high-achieving men are called back more frequently by employers than equally high-achieving women at a rate of nearly 2-to-1. Gender stereotypes and expectations influence hiring, promotion, and pay decisions, with women often perceived as less committed or competent, especially after becoming mothers.

Parenthood is one of the most significant factors. Women are more likely to take career breaks for childcare, work part-time, or reduce their hours, which impacts their earnings and career progression. Research from Denmark found that the arrival of children creates a long-run earnings gap of around 20 percent for women, while men remain unaffected. This phenomenon is known as the motherhood penalty. Fathers, on the other hand, often experience a fatherhood wage premium, earning more than men without children and contributing to the widening of the gender pay gap.

Gender norms and socialization shape career choices and job roles from an early age. Girls are often encouraged to pursue careers in communication and caregiving, while boys are steered toward STEM and leadership roles. This socialization influences the types of jobs women and men pursue, contributing to occupational segregation and the pay gap.

Differences in work experience and education also contribute to the gap, though less so than in the past. Women have made significant gains in education, now surpassing men in college completion rates in many countries. However, the pay gap persists even among highly educated workers. In 2022, women with at least a bachelor's degree earned 79% as much as men with the same level of education in the United States.

Sexual harassment in male-dominated fields creates barriers that prevent women from advancing or cause them to seek lower-wage jobs or restart their careers, further perpetuating the pay gap. Lack of workplace flexibility, especially in senior roles that demand long hours and round-the-clock availability, also disadvantages women who need to balance work and family responsibilities.

The gender pay gap increases with age because women face compounding disadvantages over their careers, often linked to parenthood, career breaks, reduced work hours, and slower career progression. Younger women, particularly those ages 25 to 34, start their careers closer to wage parity with men, often earning about 90 cents to the dollar or more. However, as women age, especially between the ages of 35 and 44, the pay gap widens significantly.

In 2022, women ages 25 to 34 earned about 92% as much as men of the same age in the United States. By the time these women reached ages 37 to 46, they earned only 84% as much as men of the same age. The pay gap continues to widen with age: women ages 45 to 54 earned 83% as much as men, and women ages 55 to 64 earned 79% as much.

This pattern coincides with the age at which women are more likely to have children under 18 at home. In 2022, 40% of employed women ages 25 to 34 had at least one child at home, rising to 66% among women ages 35 to 44, then dropping to 39% among women ages 45 to 54 and only 6% among women ages 55 to 64. Mothers are more likely to reduce their work hours, take career breaks, or work part-time, which impacts their earnings and career advancement.

Fathers, in contrast, are more likely to be active in the labor force and work more hours per week than men without children at home. This contributes to a fatherhood wage premium, where fathers earn more than other workers, including men without children. This dynamic further widens the gender pay gap as workers age and have children.

The motherhood penalty is the phenomenon where mothers experience lower wages and reduced career opportunities compared to childless women and men, particularly fathers. Studies show that mothers earn less than childless women, face discrimination in hiring and promotion, and are often perceived as less committed to their jobs after having children.

In 2014, a study by the Joint Economic Committee found that mothers in the United States earned 3% less than childless women and 15% less than childless men. The motherhood penalty has remained relatively stable over time, even as the overall gender pay gap has narrowed. Research from Denmark found that the arrival of children creates a long-run earnings gap of around 20 percent for women, while men remain unaffected.

The motherhood penalty is driven by several factors. Mothers are more likely to leave the workforce temporarily, reduce their work hours, or take on part-time roles to care for their children. This reduces their earnings, work experience, and opportunities for advancement. A 2019 study in Germany found that women with children are discriminated against in the job market, whereas men with children are not. Mothers are often viewed as less reliable and less committed to their careers, while fathers are seen as more stable and responsible.

The length of parental leave also affects the motherhood penalty. Shorter parental leave may lead women to leave the workplace entirely, while longer leaves can result in reduced wages. Moderate leave policies that allow mothers to balance career and motherhood tend to have the least negative impact. The availability of affordable childcare can also reduce the motherhood penalty and increase workforce participation by mothers.

The motherhood penalty is more pronounced in certain countries. In Southern Europe, mothers earn more than childless women, while in Nordic countries, mothers earn slightly less. In Continental Europe and Anglo-Saxon European countries, the difference is larger, and in Eastern Europe, a large part of the pay gap is due to motherhood.

Occupational segregation, also known as horizontal segregation, refers to the disparity in pay associated with the concentration of women and men in different industries and job roles. Women are overrepresented in lower-paying sectors such as education, health care, personal care, and administrative support, while men dominate higher-paying fields like engineering, technology, construction, and manufacturing.

A 2022 study by Folbre et al. illustrated how the concentration of women in care occupations contributes significantly to the gender pay gap. Their findings showed that both women and men in care occupations face wage penalties, but women in these roles face greater challenges because they are more likely to be employed in care services. In the United States, about 3 in 10 women work in education, health, and social work, which are traditionally low-paid sectors, while only 8% of men are employed in these sectors.

Conversely, men are more likely to work in high-paying, high-tech fields. Boyd et al. referred to this as the division between high-tech (predominantly men) versus high-touch (predominantly women), with high-tech being more financially rewarding. Men are also more likely to be in dangerous industries such as mining, construction, and manufacturing, and to be represented by a union, which often results in higher pay.

A study of the US labor force in the 1990s suggested that gender differences in occupation, industry, and union status explain an estimated 53% of the wage gap. In 1998, adjusting for differences in human capital, industry, occupation, and unionization increased the size of American women's average earnings from 80% of men's to 91%.

Occupational segregation is reinforced by gender norms and socialization from an early age. Girls are often encouraged to pursue careers focused on communication and caregiving, while boys are steered toward STEM and leadership roles. This shapes the types of jobs women and men pursue and perpetuates the pay gap. Sexual harassment in male-dominated fields also creates barriers that prevent women from advancing or cause them to seek lower-wage jobs, further contributing to occupational segregation.

Yes, the gender pay gap persists among college-educated workers, and in some cases, it is just as wide as the gap among workers without a college degree. Despite women surpassing men in college completion rates in many countries, this educational advantage has not translated into pay parity.

In 2022, women with at least a bachelor's degree in the United States earned 79% as much as men who were college graduates. Women who were high school graduates earned 81% as much as men with the same level of education. This demonstrates that the gender pay gap is not narrower for college-educated women, underscoring the challenges faced by women of all education levels in closing the gap.

A 2017 study by the US National Science Foundation's annual census revealed pay gaps in different areas of science. There is a much larger proportion of men in higher-paying fields such as mathematics and computer science, the two highest-paying scientific fields. Men accounted for about 75% of doctoral degrees in those fields and expected to earn approximately $113,000 compared with $99,000 for women. In the social sciences, the difference was significantly smaller, with men earning around $66,000 compared with $62,000 for women. In some fields, women earn more: women in chemistry earn approximately $85,000, about $5,000 more than their male colleagues.

The gender pay gap among college-educated workers is influenced by occupational segregation, discrimination, and the effects of parenthood. Women are underrepresented in high-paying fields such as engineering, technology, and finance, and overrepresented in lower-paying fields such as education and social work, even among those with advanced degrees. Mothers with college degrees are also more likely to experience career breaks or work part-time, which impacts their earnings and career progression.

Research by Claudia Goldin found that the gender pay gap is largely caused by women having children and by greedy work, which refers to jobs that pay a large premium for working significantly more than 40 hours per week and round-the-clock availability. These jobs are common in managerial, finance, law, and consulting roles. Women who work in those jobs get paid the same as men, though very few women, and fewer mothers, choose overwork jobs, often because it is incompatible with child rearing.

Parenthood affects the earnings of men and women in opposite ways. Women, particularly mothers, experience a decrease in earnings and career progression, while men, particularly fathers, experience an increase in earnings known as the fatherhood wage premium. This dynamic is one of the main ways that parenthood contributes to the gender pay gap among employed workers.

Mothers ages 25 to 54 are less likely to be in the labor force than women of the same age who do not have children at home, and they tend to work fewer hours each week when employed. This reduces the earnings of some mothers, although the effect is modest overall or short-lived for many. Research from Denmark found that the arrival of children creates a long-run earnings gap of around 20 percent for women, while men remain unaffected.

In 2022, mothers ages 25 to 34 in the United States earned 85% as much as fathers that age, but women without children at home earned 97% as much as fathers. Among employed women ages 35 to 44, with or without children, both groups earned about 80% as much as fathers. Among those ages 45 to 54, mothers earned more than women with no children at home.

However, these patterns are influenced greatly by differences in education levels between mothers and women without children at home. Among employed women ages 25 to 34, some 61% of women without children had a bachelor's degree or higher level of education in 2022, compared with 37% of mothers. When the earnings of mothers are compared with those of women without children at home who have the same level of education, the differences either narrow or go away.

Fathers, on the other hand, are more likely to hold a job or be looking for one than men who do not have children at home, and this is true throughout the prime of their working years, from ages 25 to 54. Among those who do have a job, fathers also work a bit more each week, on average, than men who do not have children at home. Fathers ages 25 to 54 not only earn more than mothers the same age, they also earn more than men with no children at home.

The fatherhood wage premium is a well-documented phenomenon that contributes to the widening of the gender pay gap. Research suggests that employers view fathers as more reliable and committed to their jobs after having children, while mothers are perceived as less committed. This bias leads to higher earnings for fathers and lower earnings for mothers, even when both have the same experience and qualifications.

The adjusted gender pay gap is the difference between how much men and women make for the same work, controlling for factors such as hours worked, occupations chosen, education attained, job experience, and other job-related characteristics. The adjusted pay gap is typically smaller than the non-adjusted pay gap because it accounts for measurable differences between male and female workers.

In the United States, the non-adjusted gender pay gap is approximately 21 to 17%, while the adjusted gender pay gap is approximately 5 to 1%, according to research by PayScale and Glassdoor. More recently, factors such as the burden of healthcare costs have been incorporated into the measurement of the adjusted pay gap. The World Bank has stated that the gap increases even further when taking these factors into account, suggesting that previous studies may have underestimated the size of the gender pay gap.

The adjusted pay gap is useful for understanding the extent to which discrimination and bias contribute to earnings differences between men and women. However, critics argue that controlling for job characteristics introduces collider bias into the analysis, making it impossible to draw valid conclusions about the role of gender discrimination on earnings. Occupational sorting may itself be an outcome of gender discrimination, which would make it a bad control. By controlling for job characteristics, the analyst may inadvertently mask the effects of discrimination that occur earlier in the hiring and promotion process.

Greedy work jobs are positions that pay a large premium for working significantly more than 40 hours per week and require round-the-clock availability. These jobs are common in managerial, finance, law, and consulting roles. Claudia Goldin, who won the Nobel Economics Prize in 2023 for her work on understanding the gender pay gap, found that greedy work is one of the key factors contributing to the pay gap.

Women who work in greedy work jobs get paid the same as men. However, very few women, and fewer mothers, choose these jobs, often because the demands of overwork and constant availability are incompatible with child rearing and family responsibilities. This contributes to the gender pay gap because men are more likely to take on these high-paying, demanding roles, while women are more likely to seek positions with greater flexibility and predictability.

Goldin's research suggests that the best solution for addressing the impact of greedy work on the gender pay gap is for employees to demand more predictability and flexibility, and for companies to realize that more work can be shared and that highly skilled employees are more interchangeable than employers are accustomed to believing. By reducing the premium paid for overwork and making work arrangements more flexible, companies can create a more level playing field for women and men.

The gender pay gap varies widely by race and ethnicity, with Black and Hispanic women experiencing significantly larger pay gaps compared to White men than other groups. In 2022, Black women in the United States earned 70% as much as White men, and Hispanic women earned only 65% as much. White women earned 83% as much as White men, about the same as the overall earnings gap, while Asian women were closer to parity with White men, making 93% as much.

The pay gap narrowed for all groups of women from 1982 to 2022, but more so for White women than for Black and Hispanic women. The earnings gap for Asian women narrowed by about 17 percentage points from 2002 to 2022, but data for this group is not available for 1982.

To some extent, the gender wage gap varies by race and ethnicity because of differences in education, experience, occupation, and other factors that drive the gender wage gap for women overall. However, researchers have uncovered evidence of hiring discrimination against various racial and ethnic groups, along with discrimination against other groups such as LGBTQ and disabled workers. Discrimination in hiring may feed into differences in earnings by shutting out workers from opportunities.

Across racial categories, women of every racial or ethnic group earn less than men of the same group. This suggests that the gender pay gap is a persistent issue that affects women of all backgrounds, although the size of the gap and the factors contributing to it vary by race and ethnicity.

The gender pension gap is the difference in pension income received by women and men in retirement. Women are at higher risk of poverty in old age because they earn less throughout their working lives, accumulate less in retirement savings, and are less likely to be eligible for pension plans. In 2020, women in the EU aged over 65 received pensions that were on average 28.3% lower than pensions received by men.

The gender pay gap has significant effects on pensions because pensions are generally calculated based on one's salary per year. Since women's lifetime earnings are on average 17.5% lower than men's in the EU, they have lower pensions. As a result, 22% of women aged 65 and over are at risk of poverty compared to 16% of men.

Women are also less likely to be eligible to participate in pension plans because they are less likely to be employed in jobs that offer retirement plans than men. Considering that women make less than men overall, they are also less likely to save as much for retirement. The gender pension gap is a long-term consequence of the gender pay gap and contributes to economic inequality in later life.

The gender pay gap is often compared to 3 related concepts:

Gender pay gap vs. Equal pay

The gender pay gap measures the difference in average earnings between men and women across all occupations, industries, and levels of experience. Equal pay, on the other hand, is a legal requirement that employees be paid the same for performing the same work or work of equal or comparable value. In Australia, equal pay has been a legal requirement since 1969. The gender pay gap highlights structural inequality in the labor market, while equal pay focuses on like-for-like role comparisons within organizations.

Gender pay gap vs. Wage discrimination

Wage discrimination is the deliberate act of paying someone less based on gender, race, or other characteristics, often in violation of anti-discrimination laws. The gender pay gap, in contrast, is a broader measure of structural inequality that captures the average earnings difference between men and women. While discrimination contributes to the gender pay gap, the gap also reflects other factors such as occupational segregation, differences in work experience, and the effects of parenthood. Wage discrimination is typically addressed through legal action, while closing the gender pay gap requires cultural and policy changes.

Gender pay gap vs. Pay equity

Pay equity is the principle of fair compensation for work of equal value, often considering broader factors like skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. Pay equity policies aim to ensure that jobs traditionally held by women are valued and compensated fairly relative to jobs traditionally held by men. The gender pay gap, on the other hand, is a statistical measure of the average earnings difference between men and women. Pay equity is a goal and a policy framework, while the gender pay gap is a metric used to assess progress toward that goal.