Gender pay gap extends career long, affects women's retirement: U.S. media

A woman attaches a note of wishes on the wish tree at San Diego Zoo, in San Diego, California, the United States, on Feb. 4, 2023. (Photo by Zeng Hui/ Xinhua)

The earnings gap begins as young people enter the workforce. The trend continues as women move through their careers.

NEW YORK, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Historically, women have earned less than men on average, and this pattern impacts their retirement funds, U.S. News and World Report reported Thursday.

Citing data from Pew Research Center, the report said that in 2022, salaries for women were 82 percent of those for men in the United States.

"Women and men tend to have the same access to retirement plans," said the report. "However, women lag in the amount they contribute to these accounts, their overall level of savings and how confident they feel financially when they retire."

The earnings gap begins as young people enter the workforce. Negotiating a higher base salary in their first job can have hundreds of thousands of dollars of impact over the course of a person's career. The trend continues as women move through their careers, according to the report.

Efforts to close the gender pay gap have been carried out to address some of these challenges. Equal pay initiatives and pay transparency laws help, but they're not perfect. Equal pay laws primarily address people doing the same work, which translates into those covered by the same job description, it said.

For instance, large companies might have training programs for recent graduates and place everyone in the same job code, but the moment the jobs differ, the company can pay differently. Employers are also permitted to offer different salaries based on factors such as education, certifications and performance, it added.