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For full-time, year-round workers, Oklahoma women make $0.80 for every dollar men do, ranking 38/51. California leads the nation in pay equity, with women earning $0.89 for every $1 men make; women in Utah fare the worst earning $0.73 for every $1 men make.
Among full-time, year-round workers, what a woman makes for every dollar a man makes
Source: National Women’s Law Center
The gender wage gap is the difference between median earnings of women relative to median earnings of men. It is based on full-time, year round workers.
The gender wage gap is not the same as equal pay. Equal pay refers to a legal requirement that within an organization, “male and female staff members who are engaged in equal or similar work or work of equal value must receive equal pay and other workplace benefits.”
The gender pay gap is a broader measure of the difference in the average earnings of men and women.
If equal pay were a reality in Oklahoma, the poverty rate for working women in the state would be reduced almost by half and their earnings would increase by about $5.4 billion a year. It’s not difficult to imagine what kind of effect that would have on families living in poverty, who would find it far easier to work health care, housing, food, and other necessities into the budget regularly (see Women Experiencing Poverty).
This is an especially urgent issue for women of color, who face more severe pay inequity than their white counterparts. Among full-time, year-round workers in Oklahoma:
Unfortunately, the gender gap in pay has remained consistent in the United States for approximately 20 years. Even though women have increased their presence in higher-paying industries traditionally dominated by men, they continue to be overrepresented in lower-paying occupations relative to their share of the workforce.
While girls and young women often do well at school, there is a tendency for them to end up concentrated in employment sectors which pay less (see Women with a High School Degree and Women with a College Degree). Higher-paying sectors like banking, finance, and technology remain male-dominated.
Another contributing factor to the enduring wage gap are the challenges women face in striking “work-life balance.” Women are far more likely to take on caregiving responsibilities, which can be difficult to manage in conjunction with a full-time job (especially when their workplace does not offer support in this area).
Further, research has shown that being a mother can reduce women’s earnings, while fatherhood more often increases men’s.1 See Rebecca Glauber, “Trends in the Motherhood Wage Penalty and Fatherhood Wage Premium for Low, Middle, and High Earners,” Demography Vol. 55, No. 5 (October 2018). In Oklahoma, mothers’ median annual earnings are only about 69% of fathers’ — the sixth-largest gap in the nation.
A recent Center for American Progress analysis of the Household Pulse Survey found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Millennial mothers were nearly three times more likely than Millennial fathers to report being unable to work due to a school or child care closure. This was additional stress for the significant number of single mother households in Oklahoma.
This issue brief was written by Metriarch staff as part of our Data Lookbook.
Suggested citation
Metriarch. “Economic Factors,” Data Lookbook (2024). URL: metriarchok.org/gender-pay-gap.
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