The Gender Wage Ratio: Women's and Men's Earnings
Institute for Women's Policy REsearch
August 2006

Women’s annual earnings, relative to men’s, have moved up more slowly since the early 1990s than previously, and still remain substantially below parity. Women who work full-time throughout the year (the usual group used for measuring the gender wage ratio) earned 76.5 percent as much as men in 2004. If part-time and part-year workers were included, the ratio would be much lower, as women are more likely than men to work these reduced schedules in order to manage child-rearing and other caregiving work. In 2004, median annual earnings for women working full-time year-round were $31,223. Men with similar work effort earned $40,798.

Women’s median annual earnings fell from 2003 to 2004 by 1.0 percent, for the second consecutive year-to-year decline. Nevertheless, the gender wage ratio rose slightly, because men’s earnings dropped even more, by 2.3 percent. Thus, women’s apparent progress masks worsening economic conditions for all workers. The gender wage ratio is now statistically the same as its all-time high of 76.6, reached in 2002, having just regained the previous year’s loss.

Comparing weekly earnings, a data series that excludes the self-employed and does not re. ect pay differences such as annual bonuses, the gender wage ratio has improved by more than eight percentage points since 1990 and now stands at 80.4, an all-time high.

The Gender Ratio, 1955-2005, Full-Time Workers

The Gender Wage Ratio, 1955-2004, Full-Time Workers

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