In these times of extreme political turmoil, it might make sense for donors to go back to basics and focus on the ongoing battle to close the gender pay gap. According to US News & World Report, the typical American man earns $12,000 more per year than the typical woman. Perhaps moreso than other factors, this stubborn disparity is still hurting women where it counts: in the pocketbook.
A recent call to attend to this issue comes by way of EqualPayToday.org. Each year they publish new information on what they call “Equal Pay Day” on March 25th. This the date in the new years when a typical woman makes as much as the typical man did by December 31 of the previous year. This year the typical woman had to work until March 25, 2025 to make as much as her typical male counterpart did by December 31, 2024. This represents an extra 84 days into the new year.
A typical woman makes 82 cents for every dollar made by a man at the same company who has a similar skill set and commensurate experience and skills. The pay gap has decreased but has not disappeared. It is larger for Women of Color than for White women.
The pay gap varies between states. US News has a chart of the states where the gap is the largest and where it is the smallest. The worst gap is found in Louisiana, where women make 71 cents for every dollar a man makes. The gap is only slightly smaller in Utah, Alabama, and Utah.
The ten states with the largest gaps are found in the south or the west, with the exception of New Hampshire.
The smallest gap is found in Rhode Island, home of Philanthropy Women. Here a woman makes 89 cents on the dollar. Vermont is next at 88 cents, and four states tie for third place. Most of these states are in the northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, with Hawaii and California added into the mix. Number ten is Maine, where women make 85 cents on the dollar, so the top ten all fall into a fairly tight grouping.
Equal Pay Today points out that the gap is not the result of individual choices as many want to claim. Occupational segregation is a contributing factor, where jobs seen as “women’s work” have lower pay scales than work traditionally done by men; however, Equal Pay Today considers flat-out discrimination against women as one of the major reasons for the gap.
I agree that in our current political climate it does make sense to “go back to basics,” as the author suggests. Certainly address the gender based pay gap and making substantial increases to the minimum wage would go a long way to addressing the issue and the overall problem of the ever widening income gap. At the national level the issue appears bogged down by the all too familiar partisan divide: 46 Senators all Democrats support the Paycheck Fairness Act. My guess is there’s no bipartisan support on the horizon. For now, perhaps, we attempt to address the issues state by state. It is clear, as the author’s data points out, that we have lots of work to do, even in progressive states