Author: Maggie Smith
In honor of Women's Equality Day on August 26th, we are examining women’s progress in the labor market. In this brief, we'll look at wage growth from 2019-2022 to see how women have fared in North Carolina compared to men.
From 2019-2022, women’s wages grew by 23% compared to men’s wage growth of 17%; however, when looking at the dollar amount added to monthly earnings from 2019-2022, men added more to their paychecks than women (Figure 1).
When examining wage growth by industry (Figure 2), women have outpaced men’s percentage wage growth in 14 industries, with the largest gains seen in Administrative & Support Services as well as Art, Entertainment, & Recreation. Men had a higher percentage increase in wages in five industries compared to women, including in the Management of Companies sector which is one of the highest paying sectors in North Carolina.
Figure 3 shows the difference between women’s and men’s dollar amount wage growth from 2019-2022 in each industry. Women’s higher percentage wage growth (Figure 2) translated to greater dollar amount gains than men in six of the 14 industries. Contributing to the greater overall gains in dollars earned (Figure 1), men added more to their paycheck than women in 11 industries, with the largest difference observed in the Management of Companies sector.
Conclusion
While some progress has been made, women still earned 68% of what men earned overall in Q2 of 2022 (QWI, All NAICS monthly earnings). The problem is complex with several factors likely contributing to the gender wage gap including differences in occupation, hours worked, educational degree, childcare responsibilities, and more. Future LEAD blogs will investigate the relationship between the gender wage gap and educational attainment.