For the first time since data has been available going back to the 1960s, the gender pay gap widened for a second year in a row.
The average woman who worked full-time year-round in 2024 was paid just 81 cents for every $1 paid to a man; that’s down from 83 cents in 2023 and 84 cents in 2022, according to the latest data from the Census Bureau.
The pay gap grew in 2024 as men’s salaries increased while women’s stayed the same. The median income for men working full-time was $71,090 in 2024, a 3.7% bump from the year prior. Women earned $57,520, little changed from 2023, according to the Census Bureau.
Pay gaps are wider for Black women and Latinas, who were paid 65 cents and 58 cents, respectively, for every $1 paid to a white, non-Hispanic man, according to an analysis from Equal Rights Advocates, a civil rights nonprofit.
On the one hand, it’s a good sign that men’s wages increased last year, says Katherine Gallagher Robbins, a senior fellow at the National Partnership for Women and Families. And when considering part-time workers, women’s median earnings grew about 5% between 2023 and 2024.
