Using data from the 1974 and 2024 General Social Survey (GSS), women’s personal income was compared with men’s income within each educational attainment category. Analyses were limited to respondents who were employed full-time and between the ages of 25 and 64 (1974 n = 474; 2024 n = 1,086).
Across every level of education, women earned a substantially larger percentage of men’s income in 2024 than in 1974 (Figure 1). In 1974, women’s earnings ranged from only 35% of men’s income among respondents with associate/junior college education to 64% among those with graduate degrees. By 2024, these values had increased to between 62% and 86%.
The largest improvement occurred among respondents with associate/junior college education, where women’s earnings increased from 35% to 81% of men’s income—a gain of 46 percentage points. Improvements of approximately 19–22 percentage points were observed in the remaining educational groups.
Despite this progress, women continued to earn less than men at every education level in 2024. The smallest gender gap was observed among respondents with graduate degrees, where women earned approximately 86% of men’s income, while the largest remaining gap occurred among respondents with less than a high school education (62%).
Overall, the findings suggest that although the gender income gap has narrowed considerably over the past five decades, substantial disparities remain, particularly among individuals with lower levels of educational attainment.
What do you think explains the remaining gender pay gap?
Occupational choice? Family responsibilities? Workplace discrimination? Something else? We’d love to hear your perspective.
1. life satisfaction – women in the workforce take more “head meds” such as antidepressants.
2. Tradwife/Boss… “lady” political affiliation – documented studies show a mental health gap on political sides.
3. Woman’s investment in education is proportional to her ability to obtain and retain a marriage with the associated perks. This is not only dependent on physical attraction, but capability of reproduction. A married woman with children may save money on ever-increasing daycare costs and opt to invest in her family. My spouse has a higher education level than I, yet stays home with our children and I provide. She’s basically retired and gets great joy from our little ones and homemaking.
5. Affordability – aside from daycare, for married or long term relationships, the cost of maintaining two persons vehicles, work apparel, lunches, equipment, and other items is exorbitant. The financial and stress savings are worth dropping to one worker.
6. Risk – women are protected more than men due to their ability to bear children, which is unspoken but reflected in selective service. Men take higher risk jobs since their value is reflected in their ability to provide for a family. I know few women underwater welders. Men die on jobs more frequently. Biological imperative for any living organism is reproduction. A woman will often not take a higher-risk but more lucrative job than a man will.
7. Physical strength – AI will exacerbate this. Jobs in “meatspace” will last longer than ones that can be performed in cyberspace. A woman made the news not too long ago for switching from her Silicon Valley tech career course to becoming a well-paid escort for tech bros, citing AI for her career choice.
Based. Taking a single metric, like education level, is not an accurate way to measure the myriad of gender imbalances and different choices and opportunities men and women have.
What drugs are you on?
It would be interesting to see if these discrepancies exist more in jobs that area male-oriented (i.e., plumber), female-oriented (i.e., dental hygienist), or mixed.