“Older women workers — who comprise 47% of the labor force ages 55 and older — are plagued by a gender wage gap that is even larger than the one their younger counterparts experience,” according to a recent blog post by Erin George and Gretchen Livingston for the Department of Labor.
George is an economist at the DOL’s Women’s Bureau. Livingston is the quantitative research branch chief at the Women’s Bureau.
Women aged 55 or more years make 75 cents for every dollar made by men in the same age group, according to the data, and women aged 20 to 29 years, earn 93 cents per dollar made by their male colleagues.
On an annual basis, it adds up. In 2022, the most recent year for which data are available, the authors noted, women aged 50 to 59 who worked full-time year-round were paid about $56,000 annually, which is $18,300 less than their male counterparts. By the time women are 70, they earn about $16,000 less annually than men the same age.
“To put this in perspective, among people ages 20-29, women were paid a median of $39,200 and men a median of $42,100 — an annual difference of about $3,000,” the authors wrote.
In addition to a lifetime of lower wages, women, on average, receive less in Social Security benefits, according to the authors. Lower wages can affect Social Security benefits and other sources of retirement income such as IRAs and 401(k)s.
George and Livingston proffer that salary history bans — prohibiting employers from asking about or relying on a job applicant’s prior salary in hiring and compensation decisions — can help bridge the wage gap.
Additionally, the authors said, programs that up-train women into higher-paying occupations might be a solution.
Eliminating discrimination is another key to closing gender wage gaps, they said.
“Since Fiscal Year 2022, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice have collectively recovered over $20 million in monetary relief for women who have experienced pay discrimination in the workplace,” according to George and Livingston.
