The Wage Gap, by Gender and Race

(median annual earnings of black men and women, Hispanic men and women, and white women as a percentage of white men's median annual earnings)

Year	White men	Black men	Hispanic men	White women	Black women	Hispanic women
1970	100%	69.0%	n.a.	58.7%	48.2%	n.a.
1975	100	74.3	72.1%	57.5	55.4	49.3%
1980	100	70.7	70.8	58.9	55.7	50.5
1985	100	69.7	68.0	63.0	57.1	52.1
1990	100	73.1	66.3	69.4	62.5	54.3
1992	100	72.6	63.3	70.0	64.0	55.4
1994	100	75.1	64.3	71.6	63.0	55.6
1995	100	75.9	63.3	71.2	64.2	53.4
1996	100	80.0	63.9	73.3	65.1	56.6
1997	100	75.1	61.4	71.9	62.6	53.9
1998	100	74.9	61.6	72.6	62.6	53.1
1999	100	80.6	61.6	71.6	65.0	52.1
2000	100	78.2	63.4	72.2	64.6	52.8
2003	100	78.2	63.3	75.6	65.4	54.3
2004	100	74.5	63.2	76.7	68.4	56.9

Source: U.S. Current Population Survey and the National Committee on Pay Equity.

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Women's Earnings as a Percentage of Men's, 1951–2005

(for year-round, full-time work)

Year	Percent
1951	63.9%
1952	63.9
1953	63.9
1954	63.9
1955	63.9
1956	63.3
1957	63.8
1958	63.0
1959	61.3
1960	60.7
1961	59.2
1962	59.3%
1963	58.9
1964	59.1
1965	59.9
1966	57.6
1967	57.8
1968	58.2
1969	58.9
1970	59.4
1971	59.5
1972	57.9
1973	56.6%
1974	58.8
1975	58.8
1976	60.2
1977	58.9
1978	59.4
1979	59.7
1980	60.2
1981	59.2
1982	61.7
1983	63.6
1984	63.7%
1985	64.6
1986	64.3
1987	65.2
1988	66.0
1989	68.7
1990	71.6
1991	69.9
1992	70.8
1993	71.5
1994	72.0
1995	71.4%
1996	73.8
1997	74.2
1998	73.2
1999	72.2
2000	73.3
2001	76.3
2002	76.6
2003	75.5
2004	76.6
2005	77.0

Source: U.S. Women's Bureau and the National Committee on Pay Equity. Reproduced by permission of the National Committee on Pay Equity.

Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved

Wage Gap, Selected European Countries

Country	Women's wages as % of men's
Austria	79%
Belgium	89
Denmark	86
Finland	81
France	88
Germany	81%
Greece	87
Ireland	78
Italy	91
Luxembourg	82²
Netherlands	79%
Portugal	95
Spain	86¹
Sweden	83
United Kingdom	78

NOTES: Figures are unadjusted, and reflect the average gross hourly earnings of all paid employees aged 16–64 who worked 15+ hours per week in 1999.

1. Estimated.

2. In 1996.

Source: The Social Situation in the European Union: 2003

Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.