The gender wage gap just shrank for the first time in a decade
ANALYSIS | Men, it seems, are hitting a wall
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Danielle Paquette.
Last week, the Census Bureau reported that middle-class incomes rose last year to the highest level ever recorded.
It’s a sign that the country is healing from the Great Recession. Women are also closing the pay gap with men. The national disparity shrank by the largest amount since 2007.
Is that good news?
When you look at gender and race, the numbers revealed a more complicated story.
Since the downturn, female workers — who still make less money as a group than their male counterparts — have seen more income growth. Last year, the female-to-male earnings ratio climbed to 80.5 percent, the highest ever, financier Steven Rattner pointed out on his website. That’s up from 80 percent in 2014 and 2015.
However, that is true only for white and Asian women. Wages for Hispanic women flatlined, and pay for African American women declined. Men, meanwhile, have dealt with more wage stagnation.
The pay gap isn’t only closing because women are landing more raises. Men, it seems, are hitting a wall.
Although neither sex experienced a statistically significant income jump from the previous year, the median pay between 2014 and 2015 grew. Median pay for men increased by a dismal 1.5 percent, while women saw a 2.7 percent increase, according to census data.
Over the past two years, though, women-led households, which include single mothers, recorded a pay jump of 7.2 percent.
Is something holding men back?
Not exactly. But the world is changing, and men are feeling the effects.
- Women have surged into the workforce since the 1970s as attitudes have changed and career advancement for mothers has become more socially acceptable. Over the past four decades, women have seen a 30 percent pay increase. David Wessel, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, argued in a blog post that, adjusting for inflation, men haven’t gotten a collective raise since 1973.
- Some male-dominated fields, such as manufacturing and mining, have faced steep declines over the past two decades, taking away some of the best-paying opportunities for workers without college degrees.
- Jobs in health care are growing, and those positions are traditionally held by women.
- Union power, which is associated with better pay across blue-collar workforces, has also dramatically waned.
Women also continue to outpace men in college enrollment, suggesting they could be chasing more lucrative jobs in higher numbers.
“Women are highly invested in their education — more so than men — and this should lead to a relative increase in their earnings,” Ariane Hegewisch, program director for employment and earnings at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, wrote in an analysis. “The gains overall show important progress, but we must pay close attention to whether these gains are broadly felt, or only felt by certain groups.”
Hegewisch noted that median earnings for black women fell by 1.3 percent between 2015 and 2016, while pay for white women increased by 4.9 percent. Hispanic women’s wages stayed unchanged.
None of these groups make as much as white men.
