Wage Gap Calculator
How This Calculator Works
The wage gap calculator uses Bureau of Labor Statistics data to estimate the gender pay gap for your specific occupation, experience level, education, and geographic region. Rather than relying on the single headline statistic (women earn 83 cents for every dollar men earn), this tool provides a more nuanced, adjusted view of the pay gap that accounts for the factors that influence compensation.
Understanding the Data
The foundation of this calculator is median salary data for 20 major occupation categories, broken down by gender. These figures come from the BLS Current Population Survey annual averages, which represent the most comprehensive national data on earnings by gender and occupation. The medians — not averages — are used because medians are less skewed by extremely high or low earners and better represent the typical worker's experience.
How the Adjusted Calculation Works
The calculator starts with the gender-specific median salary for your selected occupation. It then applies three adjustment factors to better match your individual circumstances. First, an education multiplier adjusts the median based on your highest level of education — workers with advanced degrees earn significantly more than those with only a high school diploma, regardless of gender. Second, an experience multiplier accounts for years in the workforce — entry-level workers earn less than senior professionals. Third, a state/regional adjustment accounts for cost-of-living differences between high-cost states like California and New York versus lower-cost states like Mississippi and Arkansas.
The resulting estimated medians provide a more personalized comparison than the raw national statistics. They estimate what the typical man and woman in your specific situation would earn.
Adjusted vs. Unadjusted Gap
The unadjusted wage gap (approximately 17%) compares overall median earnings for all women versus all men across all occupations. This headline number is influenced by many factors: occupational segregation (women are overrepresented in lower-paying fields), differences in hours worked, career interruptions for caregiving, and discrimination. The adjusted gap — typically 5-8% — attempts to compare men and women in similar roles with similar qualifications. Both perspectives are valuable: the unadjusted gap reflects systemic inequities in career access and advancement, while the adjusted gap isolates the direct pay difference for comparable work.
Lifetime Cost Calculation
Even a seemingly small annual gap compounds dramatically over a career. The calculator projects the cumulative cost of the gap over 10, 20, and 30 years, applying a 3% annual growth rate to account for raises and career progression. A $5,000 annual gap, compounded at 3% over 30 years, results in over $237,000 in lost earnings — and that does not account for the reduced retirement savings, Social Security benefits, and investment returns that result from lower lifetime earnings.
How to Use This Tool
Enter your annual salary, gender, occupation, years of experience, education level, and state. The calculator shows the estimated median for your demographic group, the corresponding median for the other gender, the dollar and percentage gap, where your salary falls relative to the median, and the projected career cost. Use the comparison bar chart to visualize the median difference and the line chart to see how the earnings gap widens over a career due to compounding.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What You Should Know
Understanding Pay Equity: Context and Action
The gender wage gap is one of the most discussed and debated economic statistics in the United States. Understanding its nuances — what it measures, what it does not, and what you can do about it — is essential for anyone who wants to ensure they are being paid fairly for their work.
The Motherhood Penalty
Research consistently identifies the "motherhood penalty" as one of the largest contributors to the wage gap. A landmark study by sociologist Michelle Budig found that women's earnings decrease by approximately 4% per child, while men's earnings actually increase by about 6% when they become fathers (the "fatherhood bonus"). This penalty manifests through career interruptions for childcare, reduced work hours, employer assumptions about commitment and availability, and fewer opportunities for high-visibility assignments and promotions. Countries with robust parental leave and childcare policies — like Sweden and Norway — have significantly smaller wage gaps.
Occupational Segregation
About half of the raw wage gap is attributable to occupational segregation — the fact that women are overrepresented in lower-paying fields (education, social work, healthcare support) and underrepresented in higher-paying ones (engineering, computer science, finance). However, this is not simply a matter of personal choice. Research shows that when women enter a field in large numbers, pay in that field tends to decline over time, suggesting that the work itself is valued less when it is perceived as "women's work." Conversely, fields that have historically been female-dominated (like computer programming in its early decades) saw pay increases as they became male-dominated.
What You Can Do
On an individual level, salary transparency is your most powerful tool. Research market rates exhaustively before any salary negotiation. Share salary information with trusted colleagues — pay secrecy disproportionately benefits employers and disadvantages women and minorities. If you discover a significant disparity, document it and raise the issue with HR or management. At the organizational level, advocate for pay audits, transparent salary bands, standardized promotion criteria, and blind resume reviews. These structural changes have been shown to be far more effective at closing gaps than individual negotiation alone.