Only 136 More Years Until the Pay Gap Closes

Women may have to wait another 136 years for equal pay, according to a new report.

The American Association of University Women released its Fall 2016 report on the gender pay gap on Thursday, and it doesn’t offer much optimism for women, particularly women of color.

The report, which analyzes the gap based on the most recent statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau, says that if the gender pay gap narrows at the rate of change that occurred between 1960 and 2015, gender pay parity could be achieved by 2059. But the caveat is that the rate of change has slowed since 2001. So, if the gap continues to narrow at its current rate, women may not get equal pay until 2152.

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And of course, that’s just a broad analysis of the gap, which can be influenced by a number of factors, including education level, industry, race, and state.

The AAUW report adds further evidence to show that the picture is far bleaker for women of color. In 2015, Hispanic women made 54% of what white men made, while Black women made 63% of what white men made.

“The good news is that the gap has narrowed considerably in the last hundred years,” Patricia Fae Ho, AAUW’s Board Chair, wrote in the report. “The bad news is that the gap is still sizable, it’s even worse for women of color, and it doesn’t seem likely to go away on its own.”