Earlier this year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the 2022 Equal Pay Day, timed to represent how far into the year women need to work in order to equal what men earned in the previous year, fell on March 15. That was the earliest into a year that Equal Pay Day has appeared since its inception in 1996. That factoid provides small comfort, however, as the year nears its close: Bloomberg reports that women in the U.S. earned 83.4 cents for every dollar their male counterparts made in the third quarter of 2022. That's up a cent from the second quarter but below the 84.3 cents gap of 2021. Women are feeling the pain. The Ellevest Women's Financial Health Index fell to a score of 1 in July 2022, while before the pandemic it was at 9.8. That report used 12 indicators, including the gender pay gap as well as inflation and female employment rate. "When women are financially healthy, our communities, economies, and planet are all better off," said Ellevest CEO Sallie Krawcheck. In a new study, job search site Lensa takes a deep dive into the present state of workplace inequality in the U.S., from the industries with the highest percentages of male employment vs. women employment to the industries with the largest (and smallest) gender pay gap. The study also examined which industries had the most male CEOs, stating that "too many industries ... have a 100% rate of male CEOs to concisely list them." Some of those industries include pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, diversified financials, and petroleum refining. Lensa found that out of 41 industries in the top 100 of the Fortune 500, 30 had CEOs that were exclusively male. Industries in the Fortune 500 with a 50% rate of female CEOs include health care—both insurance and managed care as well as pharmacy and other services—and computer software. From there, the rate falls to a 33% female CEO rate (motor vehicles and parts), and then to a 25% rate (aerospace & defense, food & drug stores, specialty retailers). Lensa found three occupations with narrow pay gaps. The median weekly earnings in 2021 for male teaching assistants was $639 to female assistants earning $641 weekly, a difference of just 0.31%. The pay gap for billing and posting clerks was just under 1%, while purchasing agents (excluding wholesale, retail, and farm products) were the only occupations to have an identical median weekly salary for both men and women, at $1,165. See our slideshow above for the occupations with the largest gender pay gaps, and click here for the full study. Related: |

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