The Economic Policy Institute released a new report documenting the current gender pay gap between men and women in the United States.
On an hourly basis, women overall were paid 18.6 percent less, on average, than men in 2025. This is a slight increase from 2024, when the gender gap hit a low of 18 percent. Notably, this gap is significantly smaller among high-income workers compared to low-wage workers. At the 10th percentile, women are paid 9.1 percent less per hour than men. At the 50th percentile, the gap widens to 14.7 percent. Among workers in the 90th percentile of wage distribution, women earn 19.6 percent less per hour than men.
Even though women are slightly more likely than men to be college-educated, women still make less money than men at every education level, and the gap widens as education level increases. Notably, men with only a bachelor’s degree earn slightly more per hour than women with an advanced degree ($50.61 versus $49.67)
The gender pay gap also varies significantly based on race, with Black and Hispanic women experiencing the largest disparities. At the 50th percentile of each group’s wage distribution, Asian American and Pacific Islander women earn 93.3 percent and White women earn 81.9 percent of White men’s earnings. For Black and Hispanic women, the gaps are 68.3 percent and 64.5 percent, respectively.
“Closing pay gaps by gender and by race and ethnicity will require policy solutions on multiple fronts,” the authors write. “Although attacks on gender and racial equity continue at the federal level, state lawmakers can and must take steps to address the gender wage gap. Potential solutions include enacting pay transparency laws, mandating Paid Family and Medical Leave, raising the minimum wage, funding universal child care, and removing anti-worker, so-called ‘right-to-work’ statutes.”