Changing Times for Women's Wages?
by: Gayle C. Edlin, Economist

" ... women under age 25 earned 91.3 percent as much as men in the same age group [in 1998]."

Is the "gender gap" finally narrowing? A recently released report⁽¹⁾ indicates that the 1998 female-to-male earnings ratio (76.3%) has improved substantially from 1979 (62.5%), when comparable wage data was first available. Analysis of earnings by gender and age suggests that the gender-based wage disparity has been notably reduced in recent years, especially in certain demographic groups.

Women under age 25 earned 91.3 percent as much as men in the same age group in 1998. And although women's wages were much lower than men's in older age groups, the earnings ratio is still advancing (up to an all-time high of 75.9% in 1998). Thus far, the overall gains of the 1990's (4.4 percentage points) are somewhat less than those of the 1980's (5.8 percentage points).

1 Bureau of Labor Statistics Report 928, Highlights of Women's Earnings in 1998, April 1999.

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