Equal Pay Day highlights stalled pay gap progress: ‘Women are never, ever going to catch up,’ researcher says

For decades, women have faced an uphill battle in the workplace.

Even now, although women are achieving increasing levels of education and representation in senior leadership positions at work, there remains a stubborn pay gap and promotion gap.

Equal Pay Day — which this year falls on March 25 — is a reminder of the persistent income inequality between men and women. The date marks just how far into the new year full-time female workers have to keep working to make what their male counterparts typically made in just the previous year.

As it stands, women earn just 83 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the National Women’s Law Center.

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Over time, the inequality is magnified. Based on today’s wage gap, a woman just starting out will lose up to $1 million over a 40-year career, according to the Center’s research.

“When you look at it by race and gender, that disparity is even wider,” said Jasmine Tucker, the National Women’s Law Center’s vice president of research. “This means that women are never, ever going to catch up.”

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