It should come as no surprise that with each passing day of evil mandates, cruel lawsuits, and tightening restrictions on reproductive rights, America has become a worse place for women. But newly released data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that not only is our bodily autonomy being threatened, but we’re (still!) being paid less than men—and any progress that’s been made over the last few years is starting to regress.
Women are getting CRUSHED. For the 2ND year in a row, the gender pay gap widened. Women earned just 80.9% of what men made in 2024, down from 82.7% in 2023. When women’s earnings collapse, entire families suffer.
For the first time in over half a century (and for the first time since the U.S. started tracking income, poverty, and health-insurance data in the 1960s, which are released every September), the gender gap has apparently widened for its second consecutive year in 2024. According to the numbers, while men’s incomes are going up, women’s wages are stagnating. USA Today reports:
The data, released Sept. 9, shows the female-to-male earnings ratio comparing the median earnings of women and men, both working full time, year-round. The ratio fell in 2024 to 80.9% from 82.7% in 2023. In 2022, the ratio was 84%.
In other words: For every dollar a man makes in America, a woman made 84 cents in 2022, 83 cents in 2023 and 81 cents in 2024.
As suggested by data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in August (that is, shortly after its long-term statistics chief was sacked amid a presidential tantrum), a jarring 212,000 women aged 20 and over left the workforce in the first half of 2025, while 44,000 men entered it. While the trend has been largely attributed to the pressures of childcare, abortion bans have also impacted America’s working women, as limits to reproductive rights and access to healthcare are reflected in workplace equity practices. (In a study published in March, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research revealed a correlation between states and areas with abortion bans, and how they impact where people want to work. Currently, nearly two dozen U.S. states have near-total bans in place.)
“At a time when women, including many mothers, are leaving the labor force at record rates, it is a five-alarm fire to see that the gender wage gap is widening for an unprecedented second year in a row,” National Women’s Law Center CPO Emily Martin told USA Today, in response to Tuesday’s report. According to the outlet, Martin alleges the Trump team is “making the problem worse by undermining workplace protections and weakening caregiving support.”
Alongside the wage-gap revelation, the census revealed other concerning trends—including that of worsening income inequality and widening racial disparities, all of which reflect a post-covid turnabout. After the pandemic, strong wage growth and better social benefits had promised an economic rebound, something many were hoping to see reflected in Tuesday’s report. But amid President Trump’s war on DEI and on American employment, the labor market is worsening, and Black Americans’ median wages overall have declined. Thanks, Donald.
So, to sum it all up, the annual data report was a whole lot of bad and revealed we have regressed on decades’ worth of progress in just a few years. Ah, well. Here’s to hoping for next September…
