The gender pay gap: what official earnings data shows

Women who worked full time had median weekly earnings of $1,127 in the third quarter of 2026, or 83.4% of the $1,352 median for men, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The Census Bureau's annual measure for calendar year 2025 puts the ratio at 83.9%. This guide is for anyone who wants to quote these numbers correctly: how each one is measured, why they differ, and how the gap changes by age, occupation and education.

Quick reference: the official numbers

Both measures come from the Current Population Survey, a large monthly household survey. They just ask different questions and count different people, which is why the percentages rarely match.

How the gender pay gap is measured

Both agencies compare medians. The median is the middle paycheck: line up every full-time woman by earnings, and half earn more than the median and half earn less. Do the same for men, then divide the women's median by the men's. That result is the "earnings ratio." The "pay gap" is simply how far that ratio falls short of equal pay.

You can check this yourself. Take the BLS third-quarter 2026 figures: $1,127 divided by $1,352 gives 83.4%, the ratio BLS reports. People often translate that into "about 83 cents for every dollar."

Medians are used instead of averages because a small number of very high earners can pull an average up a long way. The median stays put, so it describes a typical worker better.

What "full time" means in each measure

• BLS weekly measure: people who usually work 35 hours or more per week at their main job, counted as wage and salary workers. Self-employed people are left out.
• Census annual measure: "full-time, year-round" workers, defined as working at least 35 hours a week and at least 50 weeks in the year. Earnings include wages and salaries plus self-employment income.

Both definitions remove most part-time workers, so neither number is driven by women being more likely to work part time. But "35 hours or more" still lumps together someone on a 36-hour schedule with someone working 55 hours, and that matters (more on hours below).

What the ratio does and does not tell you

The headline ratio compares all full-time women with all full-time men, whatever their job, industry, experience or employer. It is not a comparison of a man and a woman doing the same job at the same company. BLS states plainly that these broad comparisons do not control for factors such as job skills and responsibilities, work experience and specialization.

So the official figures tell you the size of the overall difference and where it is larger or smaller. They do not, on their own, tell you why it exists, and this guide does not claim causes the sources do not state.

The latest BLS weekly earnings figures

BLS publishes usual weekly earnings every quarter. The third-quarter 2026 release came out on October 21, 2026, and covers 122.2 million full-time wage and salary workers with an overall median of $1,232 a week.

"Usual weekly earnings" means pay before taxes and deductions, including any overtime, commissions or tips the person usually receives at their main job. Earnings reported hourly, monthly or annually are converted into a weekly figure.

By race and ethnicity

The women's-to-men's ratio in the third quarter of 2026 differed a lot by group:

A smaller gap within a group does not mean higher pay. Black women's median was $994 a week and Hispanic women's was $919, both below White women's $1,137. The ratio only compares women and men inside each group.

The full range, not just the middle

BLS also publishes percentiles. The 10th percentile is the pay level that 10% of workers fall below; the 90th percentile is the level only 10% earn above. In the third quarter of 2026:

The dollar difference grows toward the top. Among workers with advanced degrees, the top 10% of men earned $4,985 or more a week, compared with $3,572 or more for women.

Quarterly numbers bounce around

In the second quarter of 2026, BLS reported women at $1,131 and men at $1,380, a ratio of 82.0%. One quarter later it was 83.4%. A move like that is normal for quarterly survey data that is not seasonally adjusted, so compare the same quarter a year apart or use annual averages. In the third quarter of 2025, the medians were $1,076 for women and $1,333 for men.

The Census annual earnings measure

Every September, the Census Bureau publishes a report on income in the previous calendar year, based on the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey. The report issued in September 2026 covers 2025.

For full-time, year-round workers in 2025:

• Women's median earnings were $60,760, up 3.2% from 2024.
• Men's median earnings were $72,380, which Census says did not change significantly from 2024.
• The female-to-male earnings ratio rose to 83.9% from 80.6% in 2024.

Census notes that this rise came after two years of statistically significant declines in the ratio and was the first significant year-over-year increase since 2016.

The "full-time, year-round" filter matters. In 2025, 75.6% of men with earnings worked full time, year-round, compared with 65.4% of women. Across all workers, including part-time and part-year, the 2025 median was $52,770, against $66,620 for full-time, year-round workers. Census publishes a long historical series by sex in Table 12 of the report's online tables if you want earnings for all workers too.

Why the two figures differ

In plain terms, the weekly measure is a snapshot of a typical week's paycheck. The annual measure adds up a whole year, so it picks up things like unpaid weeks, bonuses paid once a year and self-employment earnings, but only for people who worked nearly all year.

Neither is the "right" number. For 2025, the BLS annual average ratio was 82.1% and the Census ratio was 83.9%. When you quote one, name the agency, the measure and the year, for example: "women working full time, year-round earned 83.9% of men's median annual earnings in 2025 (Census)."

One timing quirk: data for October 2025 was not collected because of the federal government shutdown, so BLS's 2025 annual figures are 11-month averages.

How the gap varies by age, occupation and education

Age

The gap is narrowest for young workers and widest for older ones. In the third quarter of 2026, women ages 16 to 24 earned 88.6% as much as men the same age, while the ratio was 78.1% for workers 55 and over.

The ratio column comes from BLS's most recent full annual report, Highlights of Women's Earnings in 2024. Women's median weekly pay peaks at ages 35 to 44; men's peaks at 45 to 54.

Occupation

Pay gaps show up inside broad job groups as well as between them. Third-quarter 2026 weekly medians:

Women and men are also spread across jobs very differently. In 2024, 1% of women working full time were in natural resources, construction and maintenance jobs, compared with 16% of men. Women were more concentrated in office and administrative support (16% versus 5%). Within professional occupations, 65% of women worked in education and healthcare jobs, compared with 28% of men.

Be careful with small groups. Women in construction and extraction jobs had a median of $1,272 in the third quarter of 2025 and $863 a year later. A swing that large usually reflects a small sample, not a real change in what those jobs pay.

Education

More education raises pay for both sexes, but it does not close the gap. Third-quarter 2026 weekly medians for workers 25 and over:

In BLS's 2024 annual figures, the ratio was 84.1% for workers without a high school diploma, 77.9% for high school graduates, 76.2% for those with some college or an associate degree, and 77.6% for those with a bachelor's degree or higher.

Hours, marital status and pay type

A few other patterns from the 2024 annual report help explain why the headline number is a starting point, not a verdict:

• Hours: 21% of men working full time usually worked 41 or more hours a week, compared with 12% of women. Among people with exactly a 40-hour week, women earned 87% as much as men.
• Hourly workers: women paid by the hour had a median of $19.20, which was 91% of men's $21.06.
• Marital status: married women with a spouse present earned 78.4% as much as their male counterparts, compared with 91.7% for women who had never married.
• Part-time work: women working part time had median weekly earnings of $390, slightly above men's $375.

How the gap has changed over time

BLS's comparable weekly series starts in 1979, when women earned 62.3% as much as men. The biggest gains came in two stretches: the 1980s, when the ratio climbed from about 64% to 70%, and 1990 to 2005, when it went from about 72% to 81%.

Since 2010, the ratio has stayed in a narrow band of 81% to 84%. It was 82.7% in 2024 and 82.1% in 2025.

Within that flat headline, some groups moved more. For workers 25 and over, the ratio rose from 75% in 2000 to 82% in 2024. Since 1979, inflation-adjusted weekly earnings for women with at least a bachelor's degree rose 38%, compared with 19% for men with the same education.

The Census series tells a similar story with more year-to-year movement: down to 80.6% in 2024, then up to 83.9% in 2025. A single good or bad year in either series is worth noting, but the long trend is the more reliable signal.

Base pay versus total compensation

Both official measures are about earnings, not the full package.

• Included in the BLS weekly figure: pay before taxes, plus overtime, commissions and tips the worker usually receives.
• Included in the Census annual figure: wages and salaries for the year plus self-employment income, so a once-a-year bonus paid through payroll should be captured here.
• Not part of either figure: the earnings definitions do not cover employer-paid benefits such as health insurance or retirement contributions, and the releases covered here do not break out benefits or equity grants by gender.

So if you are comparing your own offer, look at base pay against these medians, then compare bonuses, equity and benefits separately. The official data cannot tell you whether those extras differ by gender at your employer.

How pay transparency laws relate

Pay transparency laws generally require employers to share pay information, most often by posting a salary range in job ads or giving a range to applicants on request. Some also bar employers from asking about your salary history. Coverage, employer size thresholds and enforcement differ by state and sometimes by city, so check the rules where the job is based. The Department of Labor's Women's Bureau keeps a map of equal pay and pay transparency protections by state.

Here is what the official earnings data can and cannot show about these laws. BLS and Census publish national medians by sex; they are not designed to measure the effect of any one state's transparency law, and neither agency attributes recent changes in the ratio to these laws. Treat claims that transparency "closed the gap" with caution unless they cite a study built to test that.

Your legal rights to equal pay are a separate topic and beyond this guide. For that, start with the EEOC's Facts About Equal Pay and Compensation Discrimination, and talk to the EEOC, your union or an employment lawyer if you think you are being paid unfairly. Filing deadlines apply, so do not wait.

Using the data in your own pay conversation

The national ratio is useful context, but it is not evidence about your paycheck. Your manager will respond better to numbers about your role, level and market.

• Benchmark your role, not your gender. Use posted ranges for similar jobs, BLS occupation data and your employer's own pay bands. Our salaries by role pages walk through role-specific data.
• Know the range before you name a number. In places with pay transparency rules, the posted range is your anchor. Aim for where your experience puts you inside it.
• Ask about process, not just pay. Whether your employer reviews pay for equity is a fair question.

Short scripts you could use:

• At offer stage: "The posting lists a range for this role. Given my experience in [skill], I'm looking for a base salary in the upper half of that range. Is there flexibility there?"
• At review time: "I'd like to understand where my pay sits within the band for my level, and what it would take to move toward the top of it."
• On equity reviews: "Does the company run regular pay equity reviews, and are results ever shared with employees?"

None of these guarantees a raise. They do move the conversation onto facts, which is where you want it. For more scripts, see our negotiation guides.

What to do next

• Quote carefully. Name the agency, measure and year every time, for example "83.4%, BLS weekly earnings, Q3 2026."
• Check for updates. BLS's next quarterly release will cover the fourth quarter of 2026, and Census publishes its annual earnings report in September (the 2025 edition came out in September 2026). Track both on our pay trends page.
• Find your slice. Look up the age, education and occupation tables above to see the gap closest to your situation, and remember that small groups are noisy.
• Look up your local rules. Use the Women's Bureau map to see whether your state requires salary ranges in job postings.
• Get help if pay looks unequal for equal work. Contact the EEOC, your union or an employment lawyer rather than relying on national statistics.