Gender pay gap has cost American women $61 trillion in lost wages over 6 decades: Report

Despite the existence of the US Equal Pay Actfor more than 60 years, there are still racial and gender wage disparities in the United States. As a result,American women have paid a steep price for the gender wage disparity. This is the case as per recent research by the progressive think organisation Centre for American Progress.

Since 1967, the gender pay gap has cost all working women a total of $61 trillion in missed income. This number is almost twice as much as the $31 trillion total outstanding debt of the United States government. The United States just escaped its first-ever default, reported Bloomberg.

The research examines the reduction in the salary gap between men and women in the US since the Equal Pay Act was enacted in 1963.

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A certain amount of quantifiable progress has been accomplished; for example, women who worked full-time and all year long in 2021 earned 84 cents to every dollar earned by males, up from only 59 centsin 1963. According to a Bloomberg analysis, the wage disparity will be 77 cents to the dollar in 2021 if part-time and seasonal workers are included.

According to the study, salary equality between men and women who work full-time, year-round will not occur until 2056. For many female employees of colour, this will be considerably longer.

Latinas and black women are particularly impacted by the gender pay gap since they generally make 57 cents and 67 cents less than their white, non-Hispanic male colleagues, respectively.In 2021, full-time, year-round employees who were women generally paid $9,954 less than those who were males, which is almost equivalent to the amount of money a normal household spends on food in a single year.

What do the experts say?

Overall, the pay disparity costs full-time, year-round female employees $9,954 less in annual compensation. When you take into consideration part-time employees, the disparity rises to $11,782 annually.

“That is a complete negative for women’s economic security,” said Rose Khattar, the director of economic analysis at the Center for American Progress.

“That’s the lost wages that could have been injected into the economy in the form of consumer spending. That’s wages that women could have used in terms of investments to build up their wealth,” she added.

“Women cannot afford another 30 years of suffering the negative economic consequencesof the wage gap.Policymakers must take action to finally close the gender wage gap, including by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act,” she explained.

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Younger employees had a smaller salary disparity than older workers, according to a Pew Research Centre study on the issue that was released in March, however, Khattar warned that wage inequalities widenwith time. Despite advancements in higher-paying positions for women, the survey observed that females continue to outnumber men in professions with lower salaries as a whole. As employees look for new employment, rules requiring salary transparency at the city and state levels are intended to help reduce the gap.

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