Here's how much male and female American workers earn at every age

Andy Kiersz

Feb 1, 2019, 19:20 IST

Here's how much male and female American workers earn at every age

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Activists hold women's strike and rally in NYC for International Women's Day in March, 2008.

Using Census Bureau data complied by the Minnesota Population Center, we found the median income for male and female full-time US workers at each year of age.
A gender pay gap exists at all ages, with the median male worker earning more than the median female worker.

It's a well-known fact that there is a gender pay gap, with women tending to earn less than men. It turns out that, in the US, that gap exists for workers of every age.

Using individual-level data from the US Census Bureau's 2017 American Community Survey assembled by the Minnesota Population Center's Integrated Public Use Microdata Series program, we found how much the median male and female full-time, year-round (defined as working for 50-52 weeks per year, and usually working at least 35 hours per week) American worker earned in total personal income for each year of age between 18 and 65 in 2017.

At each age, the median male worker had a higher income than the median female worker. The size of the pay gap tended to be larger for older workers than for younger workers. While the median female 18-year-old worker earned about 89% of the median male 18-year-old, the median 65-year-old female earned about 76% of the median 65-year-old male.

This chart shows the sex pay gap for each year of age. Age is shown on the horizontal axis, and the median pay for male and female workers is shown on the vertical axis: