In Research: The gender pay gap persists

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Most women still earn less than male counterparts.
Most women still earn less than male counterparts.

There is a female vice president, and women fill seats in the Senate along with other key positions in government. More and more women pursue higher education. Despite this progress, they lag behind men in an important respect: They are paid less.


     A Pew Research Center analysis of the earnings of full-and part-time workers revealed that women earned 84 percent of what men earned during 2020.
     The difference isn't as great for younger women. The center finds women ages 25 to 34 earned 93 cents for every dollar a man in the same age group earned -- 7 cents less than male counterparts. And the gap has started to close. In 1980, women in that age group earned 33 cents less than male counterparts. 
    There are more women in higher-paying jobs, according to the center but "women as a whole continue to be over-represented in lower-paying occupations relative to their share of the workforce."
    Discrimination remains a factor. Pew Center researchers recounted that 42 percent of women reported experiencing gender discrimination in the workplace, according to a 2017 study. Among men, 22 percent had experienced gender discrimination. Women typically take more time off after childbirth or adoption, and that can have an impact too.
     Gender discrimination is illegal, but it happens, according to the Center for American Progress, which reports, "Beyond explicit decisions to pay women less than men, employers may discriminate in pay when they rely on prior salary history in hiring and compensation decisions; this can enable pay decisions that could have been influenced by discrimination to follow women from job to job."

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