Fighting the gender pay gap: 8 working women shed light on how they’re advocating for equal pay
By most measures, working women and men aren’t paid equally.
Estimates of just how wide the gender pay gap is in 2024 vary. Female workers earned 83 cents for every dollar a male worker was paid in 2022, based on the Department of Labor’s estimates of workers’ weekly wages when adjusted for inflation. The Census Bureau’s calculations, however, say that gap might be smaller — though only slightly — with the female-to-male earnings ratio hitting 84 percent in 2022, the smallest gap on record.
Size of the gap aside, experts call its existence a multifaceted, complex issue. Women making do with less risks setting them back in their goals to save and invest. Over a 40-year career, those current disparities could amount to women earning roughly $400,000 less than men, according to calculations from a March Bankrate analysis of Census Bureau data on the gender pay gap.
Those barriers take a toll that statistics can’t encapsulate. In interviews with Bankrate, women dealing with the gender pay gap cite playing a constant game of catch-up with male counterparts.
“I had to labor throughout my career for pay equality,” says April Stewart, a financial educator and money coach, and one of eight women who shared their experiences with Bankrate. “I’ve gleaned tidbits of information from male colleagues and realized that my pay was lower than theirs. We had similar skill sets, mine often greater, and they sometimes were younger. I was Ivy League educated with a master’s degree, but I also was a Black woman. Over time, it has caused stress and burnout. It just gets tiring.”
Here’s how you can navigate the gender pay gap and still meet your financial goals, according to women who’ve made progress dealing with pay disparities in their own professional lives.
Key statistics on the gender pay gap in 2024
- The gender pay gap has markedly improved in recent decades. Back in 1960, women earned roughly 61 cents on the dollar compared to men, Census Bureau estimates show. At the gap’s widest, women earned 57 cents on the dollar in 1973. Most of the progress at closing the gap has occurred since the 2000s, when women began the year earning 74 cents on the dollar.
- Pay disparities are more severe for women of color. Bankrate’s Gender Pay Gap Study found that Black and Hispanic women face the widest gender pay gaps, with those full-time, year-round workers earning 69 cents and 58 cents, respectively, per every $1 a white, non-Hispanic man earned in 2022.
- A gender pay gap persists for all industries, but some sectors have worse disparities than others. The finance and insurance industry (at 61.3 percent, or 61.3 cents) faced the widest gender pay gap, according to Bankrate’s Gender Pay Gap Study. Out of over 350 occupations, meanwhile, women working as securities, commodities and financial services sales agents faced the widest gap (making roughly 55 cents on the dollar).
- Economists and social scientists blame the gender pay gap on a multitude of causes. Whether it’s because women tend to dominate lower-earning fields or are represented less than men in higher-paying, upper-level executive positions, the experts who’ve been studying the gender pay gap for decades say its causes are more complex than companies deliberately choosing to pay women less than men.
1. Negotiating for fair pay starts with research
It’s easy to feel resigned by longer-run challenges in the workforce, with the gender pay gap at the top of the list. Yet, women are in no way resigned to the issue.
“Focus on the things that you really can control,” says Cady North, CFP, founder and CEO of North Financial Advisors, which specializes in helping women meet their financial goals. “When it comes to negotiating to try to get out of the pay gap, getting as much information as possible is extremely important.”
To know if you’re really paid up to scale, start looking into specific salary data for workers with your educational level and experience who also have a job within your industry and geographical location. Stewart uses online platforms such as Glassdoor.com to also research salary histories within her own company.
“It’s a starting point in knowing how much I want to ask for,” Stewart says. “It helps to be led by fact, rather than emotion in these situations.”
While online research can be a valuable tool, women may also want to consider speaking directly with other professionals in their industry — and even their coworkers — to see salary ranges. Your female-identifying colleagues might also have some tips to share of their own.
“If you can, ask what others in your company have done when they negotiated, especially what works and what doesn’t with the person you’ll be speaking with,” says Zoe Waters, CEO and founder of social justice communications platform Necessary Behavior.
Talking about money with coworkers isn’t as taboo of a practice as it might’ve used to be. More than 2 in 5 (42 percent) of Generation Z workers and 40 percent of millennial workers said in a 2022 Bankrate poll that they had shared their salary information with a coworker or professional contact.
Ellen Ensher, professor of management at Loyola Marymount University, wouldn’t have realized her colleagues made more money than her if she hadn’t broached the subject over margaritas.
“I had to go back to my client, who was also my friend and mentor, and ask for more money. She said, ‘I had my manager hat on when I paid you, not my mentor hat. Now that you have asked, yes, I can double your rate from $50 to $100 an hour,’” Ensher says. “It was agonizing deciding to wait because, of course, my first assumption was that I was not good enough, not that I did not ask.”
2. Don’t divulge your earning history with recruiters or hiring managers
But the same advice about being open doesn’t always apply, especially when it comes to recruiters and hiring managers.
If you’ve ever interviewed for a job, you might remember instances of a recruiter asking you about your salary expectations or earnings history. While experts say this is most of the time a way for recruiters to learn more about you, it might end up perpetuating the cycle.
Avoid answering the question and instead tell the recruiter you’d like to learn a bit more about the role. You could even offer a tight salary window, somewhere in the range of $5,000 and $10,000, of what you’re expecting to be paid based on the research you’ve done for the role.
3. Don’t be afraid to job hop
While it’s not uncommon for workers to get a raise every year, workers tend to see the biggest pay gains when they switch jobs. Workers who got a raise by hopping to a higher-paying position were among the groups most likely to earn raises of 5 percent or more in the 12 months since October 2023 — and also more likely than those who only got a pay raise by staying put at their current job to say their income kept up with inflation, a Bankrate survey published in November found.
For Coleen Otero, founder of CEO Chick, the gender pay gap was what inspired her to start a business.
“I am a firm believer that freedom is something we have to give ourselves,” she says. “Entrepreneurship is key to accelerating the pace of change for gender parity. It puts the power in our hands. Women need to continue owning and operating our own businesses. When we build the table, we can guarantee we will have a seat.”
4. Always ask for more
Negotiating is going to be your most powerful tool. Recruiters and hiring managers expect it, and it’s the quickest way to ensure you start earning more right away.
“I had a man in my 20s tell me that every time you switch jobs, you should always ask for a 20 percent raise,” North says. “That was extremely instrumental for me because it really gave me permission to ask for more than I probably would have. The idea that we have to negotiate is really something we have to get used to.”
Another way of looking at it: You won’t get what you don’t ask for, Otero says. Before operating her business full time, Otero was training women for management positions with a male-owned salon franchise. One by one, she had watched the women she’d trained receive the promotions she had always wanted — until finally, she put her foot down and requested a meeting to discuss how she herself could move up.
“The next year, I was made a district manager overseeing six locations and 45 to 60 employees,” she says. “The moral of the story is, ask for what you want. If you don’t get it, create it. In the words of Beyoncé, I haven’t seen a ceiling in my whole life.”
5. Get comfortable with negotiating by practicing
But negotiating isn’t exactly a comfortable process. Practice makes perfect. Consider looking in the mirror and planning out what you’re going to say when the time to ask for more money comes.
Waters has had particular success with roping her friends in on her goals and seeking out training sessions on YouTube or LinkedIn Learning.
“If you can nail it with friends, you can nail it in front of the person you have to make your case to,” Waters says. “Know your worth and value but also know [at] what price you’d walk, too. If you cannot get what you need to live comfortably, find another space to work. You can always try again if you feel you haven’t done well.”
6. Come to the table with ways to demonstrate what you are worth
During any type of review, come to the table with concrete, tangible examples of how you contributed to your company’s top-line growth and use it as a reason for why you should be paid more.
“I was successful in getting what I asked for, or as close to it as possible, because I had the performance to back it up,” Stewart says. “It was evident by the fact that I continued to receive more responsibility and elevate my position within the organization. That comes with a cost, and I wasn’t willing to assume more responsibility for free.”
7. Don’t be afraid to ask for more reviews
Even if the negotiation doesn’t yield the results you like right now, it doesn’t mean you won’t be successful down the road.
Consider asking your manager for more frequent review sessions, perhaps on a regular 90-day or six-month rhythm. You’ll not only learn of ways you can keep improving but have more opportunities to set up the next big “ask,” says Ivette Mayo, founder and CEO of Power On Heels Fund, a nonprofit that assists women of color in defeating pay disparities.
“This confident approach also shows off your skills and determination to get things done,” she says. “Remember, you deserve the raise, and you have earned it.”
8. Have an open dialogue about the domestic work burden that befalls many women
Child care responsibilities that disproportionately befall women can have a profound impact on one’s pay over time, too, with some mothers working fewer hours or dropping out of the labor force altogether to care for children.
Census Bureau earnings data only backs up that point. Just one slice of the picture, single mothers who earn less than $30,000 a year made up 41 percent of all single mothers in 2022, while single fathers in the same income category make up just 22 percent of their cohort.
For Dr. Whitney Casares, author of “The Working Mom Blueprint,” balancing motherhood with a career in medicine has been a game of tug of war. She says gender norms threaten to hold her back from her maximum potential when she wants to “lean in fully” to her professional career.
“I took unpaid maternity leaves after the birth of both of my daughters and, with each, I found myself in debt and at a disadvantage to my male partners when it came to promotions, productivity bonuses and lost wages,” she says. “Even when I was no longer a new parent, I was almost always the default one for a long time. If one of my kids was sick, I left early to cover child care. When there was a family crisis, I was usually the one to step in. All of those sacrifices, determined solely by my gender, have persistently contributed to the pay gap between me and my male partners.”
Casares says setting boundaries at both work and home were what made most of the difference. That includes dividing responsibilities with her partner while also vocalizing with her colleagues that she’s a working mother.
“The more women and men talk freely about their dual identities as parents and employees, the less heavily the burden falls to moms when home and work life collide,” she says.
9. Prioritize saving and investing – but make sure you still have an emergency fund
Investing in financial markets is the main way Americans can ensure their wealth beats inflation over time. If someone were to invest just $200 a month beginning at 22, they’d have about $791,000 by the time they turned 65, assuming an annual return that averages 8 percent while investing, calculations from Bankrate show.
While women might feel more pressure to invest knowing they could be earning less than their male counterparts, though it shouldn’t come before having a cushion of cash to cover your expenses in case of an emergency or job loss.
“The more you can invest, the more you’re going to get ahead of the game because investing buys you options (to do things like) taking a sabbatical in 10 years or switching to a part-time consulting gig 10 years before retirement,” financial advisor North says. “But investing doesn’t start until you have a solid financial foundation.”
10. Stick to a personal financial plan
Confidence with your own personal finances might permeate into your professional life. If you get to a point where you feel comfortable with money, you might end up feeling braver to talk about it with a recruiter or manager, says Chantel Bonneau Stewart, CFP, wealth management advisor at Northwestern Mutual.
Get a clear idea of how much money you have coming in each month and how much you’re spending on both essentials and discretionary purchases. Then, craft a budget for each major spending category, including your short- and long-term savings. Remember: Your personal finances don’t have to feel so restrictive that you can’t enjoy your life. Yet, controlling what can be controlled might help you feel more financial security.
“It’s helpful for people, especially women, to make sure that finances are part of their life,” Bonneau Stewart says. “It’s like your health, your fitness goals and your mental health — all of those things you want to be consistently checking in on, and you want to have a good pulse and relationship on how those things work in your life.”
11. Never blame yourself for the gender pay gap
And above all, women shouldn’t feel that defeating the gender pay gap is a societal responsibility resting solely on them. Those who’ve confronted pay disparities in their own lives say women should realize that this stubborn problem has nothing to do with them and the value that they bring to their company.
“If there is one thing I learned in my career as a woman, it is that no one will be a more honest, helpful advocate for me than me,” Mayo says. “Learning this and becoming my biggest promoter made me more effective in securing the salary that I needed to support my family and future goals. This also kept me motivated and built my confidence.”
