--- title: Gender Pay Gap: Women Slowly Improving description: Just 17 cents to go, according to new Pew numbers canonical: https://time.com/4390238/gender-wage-gap-pew-analysis/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-01T13:00:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:51.693Z og:title: Women Are Closing the Wage Gap. Ever. So. Slowly. og:description: Just 17 cents to go, according to new Pew numbers og:url: https://time.com/4390238/gender-wage-gap-pew-analysis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt515574b28e556cf3/69889a45fb4eac055a88e25c/pay-gap-ladder.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Illustration of a cloud and a ladder og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Women Are Closing the Wage Gap. Ever. So. Slowly. twitter:description: Just 17 cents to go, according to new Pew numbers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt515574b28e556cf3/69889a45fb4eac055a88e25c/pay-gap-ladder.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Women Are Closing the Wage Gap. Ever. So. Slowly. by [Jessie Van Amburg](https://time.com/author/jessie-van-amburg/) ## Jessie Van Amburg Jul 1, 2016 1:00 PM UTC  Simple drawing of a cloud and a ladder against a turquoise sky. Simple drawing of a cloud and a ladder against a turquoise sky.Christina Reichl Photography—Getty Images by [Jessie Van Amburg](https://time.com/author/jessie-van-amburg/) ## Jessie Van Amburg Jul 1, 2016 1:00 PM UTC The [wage gap](http://motto.time.com/4201637/pay-gap-calculator/) has been a thing—an unfortunate, unfair thing—for a long time, but many [Americans don’t believe in its existence](http://motto.time.com/4216717/does-the-pay-gap-exist/). Believe it, because women earned 83% of what men did in 2015, according to a new analysis by [The Pew Research Center](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/01/racial-gender-wage-gaps-persist-in-u-s-despite-some-progress/) of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pew studied the earnings of full- and part-time workers in the United States, broken down across gender and race. At $21 an hour in median hourly earnings, white men out-earned pretty much everybody, except for Asian men, who made an average of $24 an hour. The lowest paid group of all was Hispanic women, at $12 an hour, followed by black women at $13 an hour. White women earned $17 an hour — less than the $18 an hour of Asian women, but more than black ($15/hour) or Hispanic ($14/hour) men. [**_Follow Motto on Facebook_**](https://www.facebook.com/mottoworkplaylive/) The gender wage gap stubbornly persists despite incremental progress since 1980\. These gains, according to Pew, can be explained at least in part by an increase in education and work experience of women over time. However, significant gaps in education may contribute to why certain groups continue to lag behind. Workers with a four-year college degree tend to earn significantly more than those without a degree. But the gap is especially evident for college-educated black and Hispanic women, who earn about 70% of what college-educated white men do. Just a few dimes to the dollar in pay disparity can add up to an average of $10,800 in lost earnings per year, according to a recent report by [Rep. Carolyn Maloney](http://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/pressreleases-671?ID=96EC0B5F-06E4-4748-AE70-250F6977A6A9). That means [close to $500,000](http://time.com/money/4290817/gender-pay-gap-cost-half-million-dollars/) over the course of a woman’s career. **_Read:_** [**_The Racial Wage Gap Has Not Closed in 35 Years_**](http://time.com/4390212/racial-wage-gap/) Millennial women may not experience the full effects of the wage gap until later in their careers. While 75% of millennial women feel that the country still needs to work on improving gender equality, the hourly earnings of women ages 25-34 were 93% that of men in 2012, according to a [2013 Pew Research Center](http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/12/11/on-pay-gap-millennial-women-near-parity-for-now/) report. That gap appears to widen, however, once [women reach their 30s](http://motto.time.com/4378536/gender-wage-gap-women-age/). By the time women hit their 50s, they earn 38% less than their male counterparts according to [TIME and Motto’s wage gap research](http://motto.time.com/4201637/pay-gap-calculator/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4390238/gender-wage-gap-pew-analysis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4390238/gender-wage-gap-pew-analysis/"},"headline":"Women Are Closing the Wage Gap. Ever. So. 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