{"id":12348,"date":"2025-03-25T16:27:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T16:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=12348"},"modified":"2025-03-25T16:27:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T16:27:17","slug":"equal-pay-day-highlights-stalled-progress-on-closing-gender-pay-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=12348","title":{"rendered":"Equal Pay Day highlights stalled progress on closing gender pay gap"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n

Hinterhaus Productions | Digitalvision | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

For decades, women have faced an uphill battle in the workplace.<\/p>\n

Even now, although women are achieving\u00a0increasing levels of education\u00a0and representation in\u00a0senior leadership positions\u00a0at work, there remains a stubborn pay gap\u00a0and promotion gap.<\/p>\n

Equal Pay Day \u2014 which this year falls on March 25 \u2014 is a reminder of the persistent income inequality between men and women. The date marks just how far into the new year full-time female workers have to keep working to make what their male counterparts typically made in just the previous year.<\/p>\n

As it stands, women earn just 83 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to an\u00a0analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the National Women’s Law Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More from Personal Finance:<\/strong>
Stock volatility poses an ‘opportunity,’ investment analyst says
What financial advisors tell investors about market turmoil
Consumer outlook sinks as recession fears take hold<\/p>\n

Over time, the inequality is magnified. Based on today’s wage gap, a woman just starting out will lose up to $1 million<\/a> over a 40-year career, according to the Center’s research.<\/p>\n

“When you look at it by race and gender, that disparity is even wider,” said Jasmine Tucker, the National Women’s Law Center’s vice president of research. “This means that women are never, ever going to catch up.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In fact, it could take roughly five generations to close the pay gap worldwide, according to 2024 estimates by the World Economic Forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Based on current data, it will take 134 years to reach full parity,” the latest global gender gap report said.<\/p>\n

In Northern America, despite achieving equality in educational attainment, there are still wide disparities in earned income and women’s representation in senior leadership positions, the report found.<\/p>\n

“Where diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] efforts are longer lasting, the returns follow,” the World Economic Forum report also said. In the U.S., at least, many of those efforts are now being pared back or scrapped entirely to\u00a0reflect a new political reality\u00a0and the priorities of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a>Why the pay gap persists<\/h2>\n
\n

There is no single explanation for why progress toward narrowing the pay gap has mostly stalled, according to a separate 2023 report by the\u00a0Pew Research Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Women are still more likely than men to pursue careers in lower-paying industries, and to take time out of the labor force or reduce the number of hours worked\u00a0because of\u00a0caretaking responsibilities\u00a0\u2014 often referred to as the “motherhood penalty.” Systemic bias has also played a role, Pew found.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a>Long-term consequences of inequity<\/h2>\n
\n

“The most important part is not just that [women] make less, it’s what that turns into \u2014 the wealth gap,” said Cary\u00a0Carbonaro,<\/a>\u00a0a certified financial planner and managing wealth advisor at\u00a0Scottsdale, Arizona-based Ashton Thomas.<\/p>\n

Not only do women earn less than men, but women also save less each month and feel less optimistic about their long-term financial standing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Heading into 2025, women were contributing $1,825.18 a month, on average, to their various savings accounts, while men contributed $2,352.34, according to New York Life’s 2025 Wealth Watch survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the year, women aim to save $9,463.98, on average, compared to the $17,963.13 that their male counterparts aim to put away, the report found.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

They also tend to invest more conservatively, other research by Wells Fargo<\/a> also shows.<\/p>\n

Together, that contributes to a significant savings shortfall.<\/p>\n

Although there is no immediate solution to achieving pay equity, there are some measures that can help women shore up their economic standing, Carbonaro said.<\/p>\n

“Step one is a budget: what’s coming and what’s going out,” she said. “Spend less than you make. It’s so basic, but it’s the most important building block to securing your financial future.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hinterhaus Productions | Digitalvision | Getty Images For decades, women have faced an uphill battle in the workplace. Even now, although women are achieving\u00a0increasing levels of education\u00a0and representation in\u00a0senior leadership positions\u00a0at work, there remains a stubborn pay gap\u00a0and promotion gap. Equal Pay Day \u2014 which this year falls on March 25 \u2014 is a reminder<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[196],"tags":[2156,811,2252,2718,1461,5101,41,1464,5102],"class_list":{"0":"post-12348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-finance-news","8":"tag-closing","9":"tag-day","10":"tag-equal","11":"tag-gap","12":"tag-gender","13":"tag-highlights","14":"tag-pay","15":"tag-progress","16":"tag-stalled"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}