Many traditional gender roles have disappeared but one gender-based distinction remains: the wage gap. Women earned about 84 cents in 2023 for every dollar men earned as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The Investopedia and REAL SIMPLE 2024 Her Money Mindset survey found that 54% of women surveyed said they were struggling to cover at least one monthly expense and 44% said they had just $250 or less after covering bills each month. Sixty percent of women had never asked for a raise and fewer than one in four women who had talked with their friends about money were transparent about how much they earned.

Women can take control of their incomes, however, and they can support other women who are doing the same. Individual actions can build barrier-busting wealth.

Understanding the Gender Wage Gap

The gender wage gap is the difference between what men and women earn. The most common way to analyze and express the gap is to measure the difference in median earnings of women versus men.

Congress and state governments have passed several laws to address the gap. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 prohibits employers from paying men and women different wages for performing similar duties under similar conditions. The gender pay gap persists despite these efforts.

Women earned 71 cents for every dollar earned by men in the United States in 2023, according to a 2025 report released by the National Women’s Law Center. The difference varies widely by region, however. California and Vermont have the smallest gaps where women earn 85 cents or more for every dollar earned by men. Women in Louisiana and Utah lag far behind, earning 71 and 73 cents respectively.

Societal Factors

Society has come a long way in treating men and women fairly but biases take generations to entirely disappear and women still face numerous challenges.

Gender Discrimination

Women generally have to work harder to gain equal recognition and women who advocate for more compensation or better treatment are often cast as troublesome or unaccommodating.

Racial Discrimination

The wage gap is worse for many women of color than it is for White women. Black and Latina women earn median weekly pay of $978 and $844 respectively as of the fourth quarter of 2024, according to racial wage gap data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This compared with median weekly earnings of $1,094 for white women and $1,321 for white men.

Motherhood

Having a baby also has a significant impact on a woman’s earnings. Research from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that the gender pay gap within a couple doubles between two years before a child’s birth and one year after. The wage gap continues to grow until the child is 10 years old, representing a massive loss of income over the mother’s career.

Occupational Segregation

Unequal compensation for equal work is a core issue but access to equal work is also a primary driver. The National Partnership for Women and Families found that women made up 63.6% of the workforce in the 20 lowest-paying jobs in 2023 compared to only 30% of the workforce in the 20 highest-paying jobs.

Unpaid Family Care

Women are more likely than men to take career breaks to care for aging or sick family members. Long breaks in employment can raise questions with prospective employers or cause women to lag behind industry trends and new skills, further depressing wages.

Impact of Workplace Policies

Many federal and state laws prohibit discrimination in pay but certain workplace conditions persist to prevent the gender wage gap from shrinking.

Salary History

Some states prohibit employers from asking prospective employees about their salary history and research has found that this ban has helped narrow the wage gap. Many companies work around this by asking applicants for pay expectations, however. This can lead to a perpetuation of women being underpaid if they don’t feel comfortable asking for a higher salary.

Pay Transparency

The historical secrecy of salaries and its taboo nature as a topic of discussion have frequently left women in the dark about how large the gender wage gap is. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that pay transparency laws reduced the gap by 20% to 40%.

Individual vs. Group Salary Negotiations

Data also shows that women fare better with collectively negotiated compensation. Women in unions earn an average of 89.6% of their male counterparts’ wages compared to non-unionized women earning 82% of their male counterparts’ wages.

Talk About What You Earn

Reducing the gender wage gap is a complex problem but there are some ways in which women can help themselves and each other to reach wage parity with men.

The Investopedia and REAL SIMPLE 2024 Her Money Mindset survey found that only 15% of the women who talk about money with their friends will mention if they’re asking for a raise or promotion and only 24% discuss how much they earn.

Discussing raises and salaries can be very beneficial for all parties involved and it can be a powerful tool. You can learn a lot by comparing notes: how often and how much people are negotiating in raises, what sort of salary and bonus structures are out there, and whether you’re making less than market standards.

The hardest part may be breaking the ice but you can bring up the issue by casually incorporating a financial topic into a conversation to get a pulse for how your friends feel. It also can be helpful to set ground rules such as agreeing to confidentiality.

Negotiate Higher Compensation

The 2024 Her Money Mindset survey found that 60% of women have never asked for a raise and 69% have never requested a promotion. Women with higher household income levels were more likely to have asked for a raise or promotion.

“I don’t think people realize the impact that the gender wealth gap can have on our lifetime earnings,” says Gloria Carcia Cisneros, a certified financial planner and wealth manager at Lourd Murray. “When you start with a lower base salary, it means that for all the subsequent pay increases, you are getting less than someone who is getting the same percentage increase but has negotiated higher pay from the beginning.” 

She also notes that companies expect candidates to negotiate. “The earlier the better. Make sure you start negotiating in your 20s and 30s to take advantage of the exponential growth.”  

One negotiating tip from Michelle Kruger, certified financial planner and senior financial planner at Gratus Capital, is using benefits as a tool for negotiating salary. “Bring cost differences like an increased health insurance premium or a lower 401(k) match to your potential new employer’s attention,” Kruger says. “Calculate the value of the lost benefits to you and ask for a commensurate increase in the offer.”

Consider these key strategies when asking for a raise:

1. Prepare in advance: Collect data for comparable jobs at your company and in your industry. Plan the key points you want to make and be ready for pushback.
2. Be assertive: Treat your boss with respect but ensure that it’s mutual and advocate for yourself.
3. Practice: Ask a friend to roleplay your boss and rehearse your talking points. Make sure they throw you some curveball questions.
4. Negotiate: Bosses often have budget constraints that limit how flexible they can be. Push for your desired salary but be ready to make concessions elsewhere such as additional paid time off or other benefits.
5. Time your request: Set yourself up for success by asking for a raise when it’s likely you’ll get a positive reaction. You’ll face more resistance if your company just went through a round of layoffs or the economy is trending down.

Enhance Your Skills and Education

The next step is to bolster what you can do at work by enhancing your skills or seeking further education. Learning new skills can help break down occupational segregation in many cases.

Office managers and executive assistants are often women, many of whom have extensive business experience and a wide range of abilities. They end up pigeonholed in administrative jobs, however, limiting their earning potential. They can advance their careers and shrink the wage gap by developing specialized skills in accounting, human resources, or project management.

Women have a range of options for building their skills and resumes:

• Professional certifications: Professional certifications offer a concrete way to increase earning potential by demonstrating specific skills and qualifications to prospective employers.
• Company-sponsored development: Many companies cover some or all of the costs of professional development courses. Everyone benefits because employees learn more skills and employers gain access to those skills.
• Returning to school: Going back to college might seem daunting but ongoing education can fit any schedule with the proliferation of online learning. Finishing a degree or getting a new one can open up opportunities to earn more.

Build Wealth by Investing

Setting money aside for investments can be hard when you’re juggling multiple financial goals or just trying to make ends meet. Investing helps women close the wage gap in several ways, however.

It allows women more freedom to make career choices as they amass more wealth. Women can explore more lucrative opportunities and advance professionally when they’re not tied to a job just to keep bills paid,

Many types of investments don’t just grow over time. They also generate income. Passive income can supplement wages from employment and increase overall wealth whether it’s dividends from stocks or rent earned from real estate.

A high-yield savings account can be a good option if you’re just starting out. You’ll see compounding gains from interest as time goes on. The money is FDIC-insured so there’s no risk of loss. And it’s easy to access if an emergency comes up and you need the funds. You can diversify into other investments as time goes on:

• Index funds spread your money across groups of different stocks, insulating you from the risk of one company hurting your portfolio.
• Individual stocks can perform well but require more research and active management.
• Bonds are a relatively stable investment but they have smaller payoffs and take time to mature.
• Crypto has the potential for large gains but the lack of regulation introduces significant risk.
• Real estate often has a high cost of entry but it generates income over time.

Support Women in Leadership

Women made up 46.9% of the American workforce in 2024 but they remain underrepresented in the upper echelons of business. Only 10.6% of CEOs and 30.4% of board members at Fortune 500 companies are female. Breaking through the glass ceiling isn’t easy, but it has an immense payoff.

Elise Awwad serves as DeVry University’s president and CEO. She started her career with the company as an admissions advisor. Awwad says that while working her way up in the company, “I recognized the need to support other women in the workplace…The male-dominated culture is still prevalent in many tech companies and can make women feel like they don’t belong.” 

She established EDGE (Empowerment, Diversity, Growth, and Excellence) in 2019, a network of leadership scholars and professionals who promote the enhanced career experience and advancement of women in leadership roles at DeVry and in the broader community. She also spearheaded DeVry’s Women+Tech Scholars program, created to “empower women through mentorship, job search resources, credentialing, and scholarships, encouraging them to take the first step toward a tech-focused career.”

Debbie Sanders, COO of Visory Health, also notes the importance of advocacy and support for career advancement. “Look for a mentor and look for positions and jobs where you feel supported and will be respected and compensated for the great ideas and hard work you put forth,” Sanders says. “Getting places in your career usually means not only do you need to excel at what you do but also have someone in an executive position to support you as internal politics increase.” 

The Bottom Line

There’s no quick solution to closing the gender wage gap and much of the struggle unfortunately involves deeply rooted cultural biases. Every woman has to advocate for herself by negotiating higher pay and building personal wealth. Women can fight collectively to empower their peers in leadership and lift each other up.

Systemic change takes years but we can build a workforce where our daughters and granddaughters receive equal pay with our sons and grandsons through continued efforts for equality.