In recent years, the gender pay gap has emerged as a critical focus, sparking conversations and initiatives aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Despite good intentions, the gender pay gap persists in the US. Most recently, it was revealed that even basketball sensation Caitlin Clark, who has shattered numerous scoring records and become a household name, faces tremendous discrepancies in pay. As the first draft pick in the WNBA, Caitlin is set to earn a mere 2% of the median pay of NBA players.
Caitlin’s case is not an isolated incident, unfortunately. Our data shows that the gender pay gap in the US has doubled, rising from 2.9% in April 2022 to 6.0% in April 2024.
What is the gender pay gap?
The gender pay gap refers to the difference in pay between female and male workers. It is often expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. For example, a gender pay gap of 13.1% means, on average, women earn 13.1% less than men in the same position. A smaller gap means progress towards gender equality and a more inclusive workforce where everyone has equal opportunities and fair treatment.
Gender pay gap in the US widens to 6%
During our research, we’ve found that the gender pay gap in the US doubled to 6.0% in April 2024 from 2.9% in April 2022. On average, female earned 94 cents for every dollar earned by male.
STEM sectors have the biggest gender pay gap. In March 2024, the gender pay gap in the Science sector stood at 13.1%, while in Engineering, it was 9.5%. This means females in science earned 87 cents and those in engineering earned 90 cents for every dollar earned by males. Similarly, women in IT earned 7% less than their male colleagues in March 2024, up five percentage points compared to the previous year of 2.3%.
On the other side of the spectrum, Accounting is the only sector where women out-earn their male counterparts. In March 2024, women in accounting earned $1.04 for every dollar earned by men. Looking more closely, the gender pay gap in the sector has narrowed significantly compared to March 2022 (-11.4%), suggesting tremendous progress towards gender pay equity.
Another sector to highlight is Banking and Finance. The gender pay gap here reduced to 1.4% in March 2024 from 3% in March 2022. Women in banking and finance earned 99 cents for every dollar earned by men.
How do we measure the gender pay gap?
Our data science team trained an AI-powered machine learning model on more than 1 million resumes with known salary information. Our model shows that gender, adjusted for factors like experience, education and skills, is a significant variable influencing wages. The resumes span a diverse range of sectors and encompass both male and female jobseekers. The model extracts and analyzes information from resumes submitted to ValueMyResume, such as skills, work experience and education history, to statistically project estimated salaries for male and female candidates based on the patterns it deciphered from the training data. For this research, we applied the machine learning model to newly uploaded resumes between January 2020 and April 2024 to calculate the average difference in earning estimates between male and female jobseekers according to the model.
How to check your gender pay gap?
Are you getting paid less or are you being paid fairly? Upload your resume to our AI CV screening tool ValueMyResume to check whether you've been affected by the widening gender pay gap.
Read more: US is one of the worst countries for pay transparency