Edwin J. Viera, reporter/producer, Connecticut News Service, a bureau of Public News Service.
New research shows the gender wage gap widened for the first time in two decades.
The U.S. Census Bureau found full-time working women make 82.7 cents for every dollar a man makes, down from 84 cents for every dollar in 2022.
Connecticut echoes the trend statewide, particularly in the public sector workforce.
Jamila K. Taylor, president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, said states can enact policy solutions to address pay equity issues.
“Factoring in things like access to childcare, the affordability of childcare,” Taylor suggested. “We know that childcare is much more expensive in this country. There have been conversations nationally about price gouging and the price of groceries even though, you know, we know the economy has cooled down.”
While the economy is growing stronger, she noted some sectors are still recovering from the pandemic. Childcare affordability problems existed before the pandemic and were only exacerbated.
Taylor feels one way Connecticut and the nation can help close the gender wage gap is by expanding their respective child tax credits. Affording childcare improves women’s ability to make sufficient wages to meet their needs and those of their families.
The Census Bureau data showed minority women are earning far less. Black women working full-time make 66.5 cents for every dollar their male counterparts make. For Latina women, it’s less than 60 cents for every dollar.
Taylor pointed out several challenges preventing the gender wage gap from closing any further.
“We still need the political will to broadly support addressing the gender wage gap in this country,” Taylor argued. “Better access to higher paying jobs, you know, particularly for women is important.”
If the gender wage gap continued on the same slow but steady narrowing trend, all women workers would have reached pay equity with men by 2088. Pay equity between all full-time year-round workers will take over 30 years, finally coming to fruition in 2066.
