March 25, 2025, is Equal Pay Day which originated in 1996 by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men's and women's wages. In 1996, women made 74 cents on the dollar compared to men.
How far has the needle moved? According to a PEW Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full and part-time employees in the United States over the past 20 years, in 2024 women earned an average of 85% of what men earned slightly narrowing the pay gap from 2003 where women earned 81% as much as men. A few pennies over the last few decades!
The U.S. Census Bureau has also analyzed the gender pay gap, though its analysis looks only at full-time workers (as opposed to full- and part-time workers). In 2023, full-time, year-round working women earned 83% of what their male counterparts earned, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent analysis which proposes that the narrowing of the gap over the long term is attributable in large part to gains women have made in measurable factors such as educational attainment, occupational segregation and work experience.
Additional important dates this year for your Equal Pay Day Calendar:
April 7: Asian American Equal Pay Day (They made 94 cents on the dollar compared to white, non-Hispanic men)
June 17: LGBTQIA+ Equal Pay Awareness Day (No census data available for determining this gender wage gap.)
July 10: Black Women’s Equal Pay Day (They made 66 cents on the dollar.)
August 28: Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Women’s Equal Pay Day (They made 65 cents on the dollar.)
October 8: Latina Equal Pay Day (They made 58 cents on the dollar.)
October 23: Disabled Women’s Equal Pay Day (They made 72 cents for every dollar paid to disabled men.)
November 18: Native Women’s Equal Pay Day (They make 58 cents on the dollar.)
Instead of viewing wage growth as a women’s issue, everyone should truly work towards maximizing women’s economic security through raising wages, pursuing policies that intentionally tilt bargaining power back toward low- and moderate-wage workers, and by ending discriminatory practices that contribute to the gender wage gap.
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