Oh yippee. The gender wage gap actually got bigger between 2014 and 2015, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research:
The median weekly earnings for full-time work increased for both women and men during 2015, but the increase was more substantial for men than women. In 2015, the ratio of women’s to men’s median weekly full-time earnings was 81.1 percent, a decrease of 1.4 percentage points since 2014, when the ratio was 82.5 percent. [...] Controlling for inflation, women’s earnings increased by 0.9 percent, while men’s earnings increased by 2.6 percent since 2014.
What’s going on here? Bryce Covert reports:
It’s not yet clear whether this is a statistically significant decrease, explained IWPR’s Ariane Hegewisch. But the new data follows a familiar pattern that should be concerning. “Typically the wage gap widens when the economy does well, and it narrows when the economy doesn’t do well,” she noted.
So as the country finally emerges from the deep hole caused by the recession, old dynamics are likely to come back into play. “I do think it is positive to at least see an increase in real wages. As far as we can see there has been one for all groups of women,” she said. But “it’s just more for men than women.”
A raise in dollars is a good thing. But it sure would be nice to see steps toward equality that don’t involve the economy sucking for everyone and aren’t undone by an improving economy.
The Supreme Court has a lot to say about fair pay for women—just ask Lilly Ledbetter—but Senate Republicans are as intent on standing in the way of progress on the court as they are on standing in the way of the Paycheck Fairness Act.
Please give $3 to help turn the Senate blue and move the Supreme Court forward.