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Women’s earnings as a percentage of men’s, 1979-2007

October 29, 2008

Between 1979 and 2007, the earnings gap between women and men narrowed for most age groups.

Women's weekly earnings as a percent of men's by age, workers aged 16 to 54 years, annual averages, 1979-2007
[Chart data—TXT]

The women's-to-men's earnings ratio among 35- to 44-year-olds, for example, rose from 58 percent in 1979 to 77 percent in 2007, and the ratio for 45- to 54-year-olds increased from 57 percent to 75 percent.

The earnings ratio for teenagers and for workers aged 65 and older fluctuated from 1979 to 2007, but their long-term trend has been essentially flat.

These data on earnings are from the Current Population Survey. Earnings data in this article are median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers. For more information see "Highlights of Women's Earnings in 2007," BLS Report 1008 (PDF 582K).

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Women’s earnings as a percentage of men’s, 1979-2007 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2008/oct/wk4/art03.htm (visited March 19, 2024).

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