Gender Pay Gap Statistics in 2023

It is no secret that the gender pay gap is a pressing issue today. This isn’t only true for the U.S., but also worldwide. As this is the case, it’s vital to understand just how serious and prevalent the gender pay gap is in 2023.

The gender pay gap is the difference between the average income of men and women within the working world. Although there have been many attempts to narrow the gender pay gap, women are still earning considerably less than men. Let’s see why this is and how the gender pay gap situation looks today.

The Gender Pay Gap Situation in the U.S.

The gender pay gap within the U.S. has been in existence since records began. The reason why it continues to exist today is due to a number of factors. These factors include:

Gender Occupational Sorting

When looking at different sectors, you will find that some are male-dominated while others are female-dominated. Many of these female-dominated sectors relate to the ‘five Cs’- caring, catering, cleaning, clerical work, and cashiering. Gender stereotypes and societal norms beyond women’s control dictate this occupational sorting of genders. When this occurs, a gender pay gap can arise.

Low Levels of Transparency

It is common for employers to fail to disclose salary information about their workers. The result of this is that pay disparities can occur as there is no way of comparing wages for similar roles without compensation data. If these pay disparities are severe, the gender pay gap can widen.

Caregiving and Family Needs

The responsibility of caregiving and family needs often falls on the shoulders of women. This can heavily influence the types of careers and jobs that women choose. When this happens, gender segregation across occupations arises. This promotes the gender pay gap.

Disparities Among Racial and Ethnic Groups

Being part of specific racial and ethnic groups can further exacerbate the gender pay gap. This is proven by the fact that black women in the U.S. are being paid less than 36% on average than white men. As well as this, black women in the U.S. are being paid 12% less than white women.

Differing Of Treatment Between Men and Women

The root of the differential treatment of women in the workplace can be put down to discrimination and gender stereotypes. This leads to lower levels of pay, as well as fewer opportunities for women. The result of this is that a gender pay gap can arise within an organization.

5 Facts About the Gender Pay Gap

Here are five facts about the gender pay gap in 2023:

Stats

On average, women are not paid as much as men. This is true even when women work full time and all year round. A statistic to back this is that women working full time are paid 83.7% on average in comparison to what men are paid.

Causes

It’s time to admit that women’s labor is undervalued. One of the main contributors to the gender wage gap is that women are more likely than men to work in lower-paying roles that offer fewer benefits. This is due to some of the reasons mentioned earlier such as occupational segregation and caregiving needs.

Education

Using education to eliminate the gender wage gap isn’t enough to make a significant impact. Even though women are more likely to have more years of education than men, there is still a significant wage gap at all levels of education.

The gender wage gap doesn’t resolve itself as women develop their careers and get older. In fact, the opposite is true as the gender wage gap for older women workers is wider than it is for younger women. This gender wage gap is even larger for older Black and Hispanic women.

Occupations

The difference in occupations and industries where men and women are most likely to work is a significant contributor to the gender wage gap. Even when women are in the same occupation as men, they earn less than average. The result of this means that the gender pay gap is still present and a real issue in today’s society.

The Gender Pay Gap and Jobs

By looking at the male and female median salaries for jobs, we can see which jobs have the smallest and largest gender pay gap. According to Forbes, the jobs with the smallest gender pay gap are:

Occupation	Male Median Salary	Female Median Salary	Amount More Men Earn
Other life, physical, and social science technicians	$64,948	$63,804	$1,144 (2%)
Physical therapists	$79,664	$78,052	$1,612 (2%)
Bartenders	$37,492	$36,400	$1,092 (3%)

The jobs with the largest pay gap are:

Occupation	Male Median Salary	Female Median Salary	Amount More Men Earn
Real estate brokers and sales agents	$79,872	$49,920	$29,952 (60%)
Personal financial advisors	$103,220	$65,208	$38,012 (58%)
Insurance sales agents	$71,604	$46,332	$25,272 (55%)

As you can see, there is a huge variation between jobs and the gender pay gap. Some roles have done a better job at reducing the gender pay gap than others. With better compensation practices and government intervention, organizations can strive to reduce the gender pay gap in the future.

Let’s Make Fair Pay a Reality

Here at Salary.com, we want to make fair pay a reality. This means doing whatever we can to help organizations pay their workers fairly, regardless of their personal attributes. If you want to make a difference to your compensation practices, consider booking a demo today for our all-in-one compensation management solution, CompAnalyst.