money 3 charts show how the gender pay gap is still an issue in the US
Despite progress made over the years, the gender pay gap still exists across all racial and ethnic groups in the U.S.
According to a new report from the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), the median weekly earnings for women in 2022 were $958, while men earned $1,154.
When broken down by racial and ethnic group, the disparities are even starker: Hispanic women make only 61.4% of a white man's earnings in a week, while Black women earn just 67.4%. Only Asian women are near pay parity with white men.
The gender wage gap is even prevalent in women-majority occupations. Among the 20 most common occupations for women in 2022, men out-earned women in every single category. In these occupations, women made on average 87% of men's weekly earnings, according to data analysis by Yahoo Finance.
The biggest disparities were among financial managers, where women's weekly earnings averaged $1,468 while men's averaged $2,116. Other fields with notable gaps include education and child care, managerial roles, human resources, and accounting.
A report by the Center for American Progress attributed these disparities to "occupational segregation" by gender and race. Historical biases and certain policies have resulted in poorer labor force participation for women, causing this occupation segregation.
In February 2023, the labor force participation rate was 58.5% for women and 70.2% for men, according to FRED Economic Data.
Hain Celestial CEO Wendy Davidson said part of this was because of the lack of women holding top management and leadership roles due to a "misnomer" that there's not enough available talent.
Davidson also stressed that boards need to make an intentional effort to look more broadly when hiring. (Women make up only 26% of C-suite employees and less than half of all corporate roles.)
"We have talent that's ready to be able to lean into those spaces," she told Yahoo Finance Live. "The idea that there isn't available talent, that we're tapping into the same people for those roles ... There are tremendous numbers of women who are ready to serve in these roles."
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Tanya is a data reporter at Yahoo Finance. You can follow her on Twitter @tanyakaushal00.
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