by AmeriStat staff
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(AmeriStat, March 2003) In 2001, women who worked full-time, year round earned 76 cents for every $1 earned by their male counterparts. Although the size of this earnings differential leaves room for improvement, it represents the highest female-to-male earnings ratio in history. Similarly, there has been movement toward gender parity among husbands and wives in married-couple families. In 1990, about 22 percent of women in dual-income households earned more money than their husbands did in the previous year; by 2002, the percentage of women who earned more had increased to 28 percent. Among families in which husbands and wives worked full-time, the share of women who earned more increased from 26 percent to 32 percent during the same period.
ReferencesAmeriStat, tabulations from the Census Bureau’s 2002 Current Population Survey (March Supplement); and C. DeNavas-Walt and R.W. Cleveland, "Money Income in the United States," Current Population Reports P60-218 (September 2002).