Even though the disparity in pay has been a high-profile issue for decades, it remains a concern for businesses across every industry. HR professionals and business leaders continue to search for ways to create pay equity between genders and those of different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Some may face mandates to do so from their local and state governments.
Years of law changes and thousands of conferences, seminars and media stories on pay equity have had an impact. In the 1960s, women made about 42 cents for every $1 made by a man. Currently, women make 82 cents for every $1 a man makes. That’s a big improvement, but still 18 cents short of truly creating equal pay.
And the issue extends beyond pay. Men have now regained the jobs lost since the start of the pandemic in the U.S. Meanwhile, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that in January 2002, one million fewer women are in the labor force than in February 2020. The disparity between those numbers likely reflects, in part, the uneven childcare responsibilities men and women took on during the pandemic.
