The Real Cost of the Wage Gap
Everyone is familiar with the statistic that women earn an average of 79 to 80 cents per dollar for a white male in the United States. But the real cost of the wage gap is much more subtle than that.
According to the 2017 National Partnership for Women and Families , the average American man earns $ 10,169 more than the average US woman, although this varies by location, race, and industry. In total, over the course of his entire career, the average man earns about half a million dollars more than his female counterpart, in wages alone.
But this is just the base salary. When 401 (k) contributions, debt repayments, retirement income, and wage increases are all more or less dependent on that starting wage, the gap widens dramatically and ripples through every aspect of a woman’s financial life. If the gap were closed, the average American working woman would have money for another 14 months of childcare, or could pay off her student loan debt in just under three years.