Historically, women have earned less on average than men, a pattern that affects their retirement funds, US News and World Report reported Thursday.
Citing data from the Pew Research Center, the report noted that, in 2022, women’s wages were 82 percent of men’s in the United States.
“Women and men tend to have equal access to retirement plans,” the report stated. “However, women lag behind in the amount they contribute to these accounts, their overall level of savings, and the financial confidence they feel when they retire,” she added.
The income gap begins when young people enter the labor market. Negotiating a higher base salary on your first few jobs can have an impact of hundreds of thousands of dollars over a person’s career. Also, according to the report, the trend continues as women advance in their careers.
Efforts have been made to close the gender pay gap by addressing some of these challenges. Equal pay initiatives and wage transparency laws help, but they’re not perfect. Equal pay laws are directed primarily toward people doing the same job, which translates to those workers belonging to the same professional category, he said.
For example, large companies may have training programs for recent graduates and place everyone under the same job code. However, as the jobs differ, the company may pay differently. Employers are also allowed to offer different salaries based on factors such as education, degrees and performance, it ended.