Despite ongoing efforts to promote workplace equality, the gender pay gap doubled from 2.9% in 2022 to 6% this year.
"Our latest data have revealed that the gender pay gap in the United States widened in March 2024, reaching its highest level since coming out of the pandemic," said James Neave, head of data science for the job search engine Adzuna.
The disparity is especially prevalent in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
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"Despite ongoing endeavors to enhance female participation and representation within STEM fields, the scales remain overwhelmingly tilted in favor of men, with women in science still earning a staggering 13% less than their male counterparts on average," he said. "Our data underscore a pressing need for better efforts to advance gender parity in the workplace."
According to Adzuna research on more than a million resumes in the United States:
- Engineering reported a gap of 9.5%, meaning that females typically 90 cents for every dollar earned by males.
- Although engineering recorded a slim improvement in narrowing the gender pay gap by 0.9% compared to March 2022, the gender pay gap in science increased from 7.7% to 13%.
- Women in information technology earned 7% less than their male colleagues in March 2024, up 5 percentage points compared to the previous level of 2.3%.
"These figures reveal persistent challenges in closing the gender pay gap and achieving fair pay for women in STEM, likely driven by ingrained gender biases and structural barriers that perpetuate occupational segregation," the report said.
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. The gender pay gap in banking and finance narrowed to 1.4% in March from 3% in 2022. Women in banking and finance earned 99 cents for every dollar earned by men.
"On a positive note, it's uplifting to see tremendous strides among the accounting and banking and finance sectors, where the gender pay gap has been narrowed to nearing insignificance," Neave said. "Additionally, we've seen notable progress within the human resources and customer service fields. The narrowing of these gaps highlights the importance and success of employers fostering fair and equitable compensation practices across all industries."
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Alan Goforth
Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.
