Little to no progress in closing the gender wage gap in three decades: Regression-adjusted gender wage gap, 1979–2021

Date Regression-adjusted gender wage gap
1979 37.7%
1980 36.8%
1981 35.7%
1982 34.5%
1983 33.4%
1984 33.1%
1985 32.8%
1986 32.6%
1987 31.9%
1988 31.2%
1989 28.6%
1990 27.3%
1991 25.6%
1992 24.1%
1993 23.3%
1994 23.2%
1995 24.1%
1996 23.4%
1997 23.8%
1998 23.4%
1999 24.0%
2000 23.9%
2001 23.2%
2002 22.5%
2003 22.3%
2004 22.6%
2005 22.1%
2006 22.4%
2007 22.8%
2008 22.7%
2009 22.5%
2010 21.3%
2011 20.7%
2012 22.0%
2013 21.4%
2014 21.2%
2015 21.7%
2016 21.9%
2017 21.6%
2018 22.6%
2019 22.6%
2020 23.0%
2021 22.1%

Notes: Wages are adjusted into 2021 dollars by the CPI-U-RS. The regression-based gap is based on average wages and controls for gender, race and ethnicity, education, age, and geographic division. The log of the hourly wage is the dependent variable.

Source: Author’s analysis of Current Population Survey, Outgoing Rotation Group (CPS-ORG), 1979–2021, and Economic Policy Institute, Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0.26 (2022), https://microdata.epi.org/, 1979–2022. 

View the underlying data on epi.org.