New Census Data Shows a Major Gender Gap in Median Income and Earnings 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 2019 was $48,098. These households made up 17.7 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. Income includes earnings, rental fees, interest, dividends, and money from other sources.

For households headed by a single man in 2019, the median income figure was $69,244. For married-couple families, the median income was $102,308. Thus, the median income level for family households headed by a single woman was 69.4 percent of the median income for family households headed by a single man and 47.0 percent of the median income of married-couple families. Both of these income gaps widened from the previous year in 2018.

For single women living alone, the median income in 2019 was $34,612. For single men living alone, the median income was $48,496. Thus, single women had a median income of 71.4 percent of the median income of single men.

Women had median earnings from work in 2019 of $35,826. For men, median earnings were $48,769. Thus women earned 73.5 percent of what men earned.

For year-round, full-time workers in 2019, women had median earnings of $47,299. This was 82.3 percent of the median earnings of male year-round, full-time workers.