2026 Update: The Gender Wage Gap

Each year Equal Pay Day marks how many extra weeks into the new year a woman must work to earn an average man’s salary in the prior year. This year’s Equal Pay Day is March 26, meaning that on average a woman needed to work more than two additional months to earn the average man’s annual salary. Equal Pay Day is a reflection of the gender wage gap. In New York State, women working full-time and year-round earned 91.4 cents for every dollar earned by men according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey (ACS). This represents a narrowing of the gender wage gap from the previous year, when New York women earned 87.3 cents for every dollar earned by men.

The gender wage gap measures the persistent pay gap between women and men. It reflects the undervaluing of women in the workplace, the disproportionate burden of family-care obligations on women, and the low wages earned in industries where women workers dominate. New York State’s progress toward closing the pay gap between women and men, can be seen as result of the enactment of historic legislation and investment to address the gender wage gap. This includes:

Investments in Child care: New York State has made historic investments in the child care industry, starting in 2023 with a $8.6 billion investment over four years. This money has dramatically increased the number of New York State families that are able to access free and affordable child care through the Child Care Assistance Program subsidy and allowed more New York State mothers to stay in the workforce and work more hours, at higher pay. This investment has also increased the reimbursement rates for child care providers and provided grants for wage increases, bonuses, and worker benefits. In an industry dominated by women with historically low pay, this funding directly addresses the gender wage gap. Building on this progress, Governor Hochul announced an additional $1.7 billion investment in 2026 to increase access to the Child Care Assistance Program, launch a free, all day child care program for 2-year-olds in New York City, and more. This historic investment reflects the Governor’s commitment to realizing the vision of universal child care in New York State.

Increasing Financial Security of Families: In 2025, New York State enacted the largest expansion of the Empire State child tax credit ever. Families are now eligible for a tax credit of up to $1,000 per child for children under four years old and up to $500 for children between four and 16 years old. The cost of raising a child in New York is exorbitant and puts an added burden on working parents and particularly single mothers. While the tax credit doesn’t directly address take-home pay, it boosts the economic security of working parents and helps reduce childhood poverty.

Legislation for Working Caregivers: Several New York State laws have made it easier to be a working parent. Since 2018, New York’s nation-leading Paid Family Leave program has allowed parents and caregivers to take paid time off to bond with their children and care for their families. This program further reduces the disproportionate burden of family care obligations on women’s careers and earnings by allowing non-birthing parents the ability to stay home. In 2024, New York State also mandated paid time off for employees to express breast milk in the workplace, ensuring no worker’s paycheck was negatively impacted by the choice to breastfeed. Finally, in 2025, New York State became the first state in the nation to mandate paid time off for prenatal care appointments and other medical care related to pregnancy.

Raising Wages and Protections in Women-Dominated Industries: Over the last several years New York State has enacted legislation and made investments to raise the take-home pay and benefits in industries where women dominate. Recently, in 2025, New York State enacted the Fashion Workers Act, which explicitly prohibits wage exploitation of models and sets new labor standards in this women-dominated industry. In addition, New York State has continued to raise the minimum wage every year since 2024 and will index it to inflation starting in 2027. The increase in the minimum wage benefits the low-wage workforce, which is disproportionately made up of women of color. Finally, in 2022, New York State raised the minimum wage for homecare workers above the state minimum wage and continued to increase it every year. Starting in 2027, the homecare worker minimum wage will be indexed to inflation.

Despite this progress, the work toward pay equity continues. As shown in the following pages, while New York State has made meaningful progress toward closing the gender wage gap in recent years, a gap in pay between men and women in New York State persists, and the gap is substantially larger for women of color. To address labor market challenges, like the gender wage gap, thorough analysis and transparent reporting are required. As part of that effort, the New York State Department of Labor is committed to studying the New York State gender wage gap and reporting our findings each year.

New York State’s Gender Wage Gap: 2026 Update

Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) show that New York State (NYS) has made measurable progress towards pay equity. Women working full-time and year-round in New York State earned 91.4 cents for every dollar earned by men. This is a significant narrowing of the gender wage gap compared with 2023, when it was 87.3 cents per dollar. NYS has the smallest gender wage gap among the 50 states and is well above the national average of 83.0 cents per dollar.

Exhibit 1: Significant Narrowing of the Gender Wage Gap in New York State

Median Earnings of Full-Time Year Round Women Workers as a % of Men’s Earnings

Source: American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2412

Note: 1-year estimates for 2000 are not available.

A primary driver of the narrowing gender wage gap was stronger earnings growth among women compared with men. In 2024, women earned $66,047 per year up from $62,111 in 2023, or an increase of 6.3%. In contrast, men’s earnings increased only by 1.5%, from $71,168 to $72,238. While women are making gains in the workplace, a typical woman in NYS still earned $6,191 less than her male counterpart in 2024. If this wage gap were to remain unchanged, she would earn about $247,640 less than a man over the course of a 40-year career.

Although the 2024 data showed significant improvement from prior years, the gender wage gap is widespread and cuts across demographics, education status and experience levels in almost every occupation. Occupational segregation, societal expectations and the lack of support for caregivers continue to hold women back.

New York Women are Making Gains in White-Collar Occupations

Data from the ACS suggests that working women in NYS continue to make headway in higher-paying, white-collar occupations. Between 2023 and 2024, women added 54,839 jobs in management, business, science, and arts occupations compared to 35,125 jobs for men. Specifically, women added 5,087 jobs in management, business, and financial occupations, while men lost 17,470 jobs. Women in NYS also experienced larger employment gains in the healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, adding 14,677 jobs, while men added just 1,703.

Over time, a greater share of New York women are working full-time and year-round in higher-paying management, business, science, and arts occupations. In 2024, 58.4% of women working full-time and year-round were employed in white-collar occupations, up from 57.7% in 2023, and 38.3% in 2019. This has pushed up median earnings for women. The gender wage gap within this group has also improved over time, from 78.9 cents per dollar earned by men in 2014 to 80.7 cents per dollar in 2023 and 83.3 cents per dollar in 2024.

Exhibit 2: NYS Women Continue to Make Gains in Professional Occupations

Changes in Full-Time, Year-Round Employment by Sex and Occupation, 2023-2024

Source: American Community Survey 2024 1-Year Estimates, Table S2402

Rising Education Levels Support the Narrowing of the Gender Wage Gap, but Does Not Eliminate It

Rising educational attainment levels among women in NYS has been a key factor supporting the growth of their employment in higher-paying white-collar occupations. According to the ACS, the share of women aged 25+ with a bachelor’s degree or higher rose from 35.0% in 2014 to 43.0% in 2024. This represented a faster increase than among men, whose share grew from 33.8% to 39.2% over the same period.

While higher levels of education improve earnings for both women and men, it does not eliminate gender-based pay disparities. In fact, the gender wage gap is wider among bachelor’s degree holders (80.1 cents per dollar earned by men who were college graduates) than among high school graduates (82.9 cents per dollar). Even women with advanced degrees, on average, earned less than men with only a bachelor’s degree.

Exhibit 3: Persistent Earnings Gaps Across Educational Attainment Levels in NYS

Male and Female Earnings by Education Level in New York State
Full-Time Year-Round Civilian Workers Age 25 Years and Over

Source: 2024 American Community Survey 1-Year PUMS

The Pay Gap Is Considerably Larger for Black and Hispanic Women in NYS

The gender wage gap differs substantially by race and ethnicity. Historically marginalized groups, particularly women of color, experience larger earnings disparities than White women relative to White, non-Hispanic men.

In 2024, Hispanic women in NYS experienced the largest pay gap, earning just 60.8 cents for every dollar earned by White men. Black women also experienced wide pay gaps during 2024, earning just 65.7 cents for every dollar earned by White men. White women earned 85.1 cents for every dollar of their male counterparts, while Asian women continue to be closer to parity with White men, earning 91.4 cents.

Exhibit 4: Women of Color Suffer the Largest Pay Gaps in NYS

Median Earnings as a Percent of White, Non-Hispanic Male

Source: 2024 American Community Survey, Tables B20017, B20017D, B0017H, B200171I

Earnings disparities reflect not only differences in pay, but also unequal access to stable, full-time employment. Women of color are more likely to work part-time, experience employment interruptions, or be concentrated in lower-wage occupations. This is often due to caregiving responsibilities and other structural barriers.

Any analysis limited to just full-time, year-round workers excludes 1.6 million women workers in the state and understates the true extent of gender-based earnings inequality. When all workers are considered, the gender wage gap widens to 82.3 cents for all female workers across New York State.

These disparities are reflected in occupational concentrations, such as healthcare support roles which rely heavily on caregiving skills that have been historically undervalued in the labor market. Healthcare support also has one of the highest shares of part-time workers, with 45.2% not working full-time and year-round. Black and Hispanic are disproportionately represented, making up 47.6% of workers in these roles compared with 16.1% of the overall workforce. Despite the essential nature of these jobs, women earn $30,574 per year (all workers), 44.0% below the median for all occupations for all workers ($54,611), and still face a gender wage gap of 90.2 cents per dollar.

Gender Wage Gap by Age

The gender wage gap also varies across age groups, demonstrating how earnings evolve over the course of women’s careers. In New York State, female workers typically begin their careers near parity with men. In 2024, women ages 25 to 34 working full-time and year-round in New York State earned 99.6 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts, while women ages 35 to 44 earned 92.1 cents, reflecting a widening gap during their prime working years.

Exhibit 5: Early-Career Women Are Near Parity With Men in NYS

Median Earnings by Sex and Age, Civilian Full-Time and Year-Round Workers

Source: 2024 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) 1-Year Estimates

This pattern is driven in part by the “motherhood penalty,” which refers to the drop in women’s earnings that often occurs after having children. Mothers are more likely to reduce work hours, take time out of the labor force, or move into more flexible/lower-paying jobs to balance caregiving responsibilities.

Even when they remain continuously employed and work full-time, mothers often experience slower wage growth. The perception that mothers are less competent and less committed to their careers can lead to fewer promotions. Over time, however, these smaller raises and missed advancement opportunities compound, widening the gender wage gap.

In New York State, full-time working mothers ages 25-44 with children under 18 earned significantly less than full-time fathers in 2024. Based on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), median weekly earnings for full-time mothers were $1,080 compared with $1,540 for fathers. Meanwhile, fathers tend to experience an increase in earnings after having children, referred to as the “fatherhood bonus.” In 2024, fathers earned 18.5% more than men without children.

The increased availability of remote and flexible work arrangements since the pandemic has allowed more mothers to stay or re-enter the workforce. Labor force participation rates (LFPR) for mothers increased from 68.9% in 2019 to 75.3% in 2024. Access to affordable and reliable child care is another critical factor supporting increased LFPR among mothers.

Recent investments by the State of New York have contributed to measurable growth in child care supply in 2024, including the opening of 84 new day care centers and 567 group family day care homes, which provide care to non-relative children in a residence with a maximum capacity of 16 children. Combined, the number of seats at licensed and registered child care providers across the state (excluding school age care) increased by 11,540 with a maximum capacity of 477,650.

However, affordability remains a significant barrier. Based on an analysis from Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA), New York had the 8th least affordable center-based infant care. At $20,439 annually, it was 134.1% higher than annual in-state tuition at New York’s public four-year universities. It would cost a married couple 14.5% of their household income and half the median income for single parent families. Without continued investment in both supply and affordability, improvements in mothers’ labor force participation may be difficult to sustain, and child care constraints will continue to reinforce the motherhood penalty and the gender wage gap.

Conclusion

The ongoing narrowing of the gender wage gap in NYS reflects meaningful progress and the impact of sustained policy efforts to promote pay equity. However, these gains have not been evenly shared. Women of color continue to face substantially larger wage gaps, shaped by occupational segregation, unequal access to advancement, and intersecting racial, ethnic, and gender biases. Working mothers still experience lower pay and slower wage growth due to limited access to affordable child care and workplace bias. Continued commitment to policies that promote pay equity and support women’s participation in the workforce will be essential to ensure that recent gains are not only preserved, but extended, so that all women can share fully in New York’s economic growth.

Appendix

Gender Wage Gap and Share of Female Employed by Occupation

New York State Full-Time, Year-Round Civilian Employed Population 16 Years And Over

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The Data is Not Available

Source: American Community Survey 2024 1-Year Estimates, Tables S2412 and S2402