Women in five states won’t achieve pay equity until the next century if current trends continue, according to a new report.
The wage gap between men and women in West Virginia, Utah, Louisiana, North Dakota and Wyoming is unlikely to close until 2100, 42 years after the gap is set to close for the whole U.S., according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research’s Status of Women in the States: 2015 project.
By analyzing employment and earnings of women, the project graded states on their equity using an index the Institute developed in the mid-1990s. The report found that women in the South are far more likely to make less money than man compared to women in the North, and women of color face the largest gaps. Hispanic women, the report says, make 53.8 cents to every dollar made by white men, with a median annual earning of $28,000.
Over the course of her lifetime, the average working woman loses more than half a million dollars due to the wage gap, the report found.
“Data like these can help us pinpoint, at both a state and national level, how and where we can improve employment and workforce policies to end stubborn inequality by gender, race, and ethnicity,” said IWPR Vice President and Executive Director Barbara Gault in a statement. “The nation needs to take bold, coordinated action to speed the pace of progress toward closing the wage gap and ending discrimination by sex and race.”
This report is the first in a series that will be released by the organization this year.
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