Gender Pay and Wealth Gaps
REMAIN
In 2023 , women in the United States are still earning less than their male counterparts , and in addition , own much less than them too .
Why is this important ?
Women in the workforce are now commonplace when compared to previous generations , and a significantly greater percentage of women are earning college degrees and beyond in comparison to their male counterparts .
According to the American Dental Association , female dental school graduates have grown in recent years , from 46 % to 50.6 % between 2009 and 2019 , and the percentage of female dentists also grew from 24.1 % to 34.5 % between 2010 and 2020 . Even as women have continued to advance in educational attainment , the pay gap – and therefore the wealth gap – has been stuck in a holding pattern . So why can we not close the wealth gaps between genders in 2023 ?
The gender pay gap is only a part of the bigger problem of the gender wealth gap . Women today earn about 82 cents per dollar that men earn . It takes women about 3 months longer on average to earn what men earn in a year . What is even more disappointing is that families headed by women have just 55 cents in median wealth for every dollar of wealth owned by families headed by men .
18 SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2023 | PENNSYLVANIA DENTAL JOURNAL