The Gender Pay Gap

TLDR

The United States gender pay gap has shown a mixed trajectory, with a long period of stability followed by a notable rise in women's relative earnings since the late 1970s, yet the gap persists and the earlier convergence slowed in the 1990s. This study examines whether the recent slowdown is a temporary fluctuation or the limit of convergence, and offers future predictions.

Abstract

Executive Overview The trends in the gender pay gap in the United States form a somewhat mixed picture. On the one hand, after a half a century of stability in the earnings of women relative to men, there has been a substantial increase in women's relative earnings since the late 1970s. One of the things that make this development especially dramatic and significant is that the recent changes contrast markedly with the relative stability of earlier years. On the other hand, there is still a gender pay gap. Women continue to earn considerably less than men on average, and the convergence that began in the late 1970s slowed noticeably in the 1990s. Is this slowdown just a blip in an overall trend, or has the pay gap converged as far as it can? We look at this issue in depth and make some predictions for the future.