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Employment Research

Will the Gender Pay Gap Get Smaller?

Charles Gascon and Lowell Ricketts examined national and regional aspects of the gender pay gap. Their On The Economy blog post Will the Gender Pay Gap Get Smaller? includes their findings:

  • The earnings gap has narrowed 17 percentage points over the past 30 years to an average of 80%, meaning that real median annual earnings for women are about 80% of earnings for men.
  • The Eighth Federal Reserve District includes the St. Louis, Louisville, Memphis, and Little Rock regions, which have all followed the national trend, but there were differences in how each region narrowed the gap.
  • In St. Louis, the earnings gap was 79% between 2011 and 2015, with an 18.2% increase in real earnings growth for women and a 15% decrease in real earnings growth for men.
  • In Arkansas, the gap narrowed less than in many other states, but women’s earnings grew faster than the national rate and men’s earnings increased.

Read the full story here.