New Census Data Shows a Persisting and Large Gender Gap in Median Income in the United States

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual report on income in the United States. According to data in the report, the median income of households headed by a single woman in the United States in 2017 was $41,703. These households made up nearly 19 percent of all family households in the United States. The median income figure shows the point where half of all families earn below this level and half earn above this level.

For households headed by a single man in 2017, the median income figure was $60,843. For married-couple families, the median income was $90,386. Thus, the median income level for family households headed by a single woman was 68.5 percent of the median income for family households headed by a single man and 46.1 percent of the median income of married-couple families.

For single women living alone, the median income in 2016 was $30,748. For single men living alone, the median income was $44,250. Thus, single women had a median income of 69.4 percent of the median income of single men.

The bad news gets worse as the gender gap in median income widened a bit from 2016 to 2017.