Page 1 GAO-23-106041 Women in the Workforce
December 15, 2022
The Honorable Carolyn B. Maloney
Chairwoman
Committee on Oversight and Reform
House of Representatives
The Honorable Debbie Dingell
House of Representatives
Women in the Workforce: The Gender Pay Gap Is Greater for Certain Racial and Ethnic
Groups and Varies by Education Level
Prior research has shown that women in the U.S. workforce earn less than men and face
challenges in advancing their careers.
1
Our March 2022 report found that in 2019, women were
underrepresented in management positions.
2
You asked us to assess disparities for women in the U.S. workforce, including the gender pay
gap, in recent years.
3
This is an interim report, and we plan to issue a more detailed report in
spring 2023. This interim report examines (1) the representation of women, and the difference in
pay between women and men, in the overall workforce; and (2) how pay differences between
women and men in the overall workforce vary based on race and ethnicity and level of
education.
To assess women’s workforce representation and pay, we reviewed published summary-level
data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s (Census Bureau) American Community Survey (ACS) from
2018, 2019, and 2021.
4
We conducted various analyses of these data, including calculating
women’s pay as a proportion of men’s pay when that proportion was not included in the
1
See, for example, U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P60-273, Income and Poverty in the United
States: 2020, U.S. Government Publishing Office (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 2021).
2
GAO, Women in Management: Women Remain Underrepresented in Management Positions and Continue to Earn
Less than Male Managers, GAO-22-105796 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 7, 2022). For a complete list of our previous
work in this area, see the Related GAO Products page at the end of this report.
3
Throughout our report, we describe pay differences between men and women as the gender pay gap.
4
Specifically, we reviewed ACS 1-year estimates for each of these three years. We reviewed summary-level ACS
data because record-level data were not available in time to use in our analysis. For our spring 2023 report, we plan
to analyze record-level ACS data for 2018, 2019, and 2021. Due to data collection disruptions early in the COVID-19
pandemic, the Census Bureau determined that the estimates produced in the 2020 ACS did not meet statistical
quality standards. We did not include the 2020 ACS data in this report.
