Pay gaps are measured by comparing typical earnings across groups. Part of the gap comes from differences in jobs, hours and education. But studies that control for those factors still find a gap that is best explained by discrimination. The gap also widens when race and gender combine, which is why Black women and Latinas face the largest shortfalls.
The causes are structural. Occupational segregation steers workers of color into lower-paid jobs. Hiring audits have found that applicants with names associated with Black people get fewer callbacks than identical applicants with white-sounding names. Unequal school funding and the racial wealth gap shape who can afford advanced degrees and unpaid internships.
Advocates mark the gap with equal pay days, which show how far into a new year a group must work to match what white, non-Hispanic men earned the year before. Over a career, the gap costs a Black woman more than $1 million, according to NWLC estimates. Pay transparency laws and stronger enforcement aim to close it.