AAUW PUBLIC POLICY CONVERSATIONS – MARCH 2025
A penny. It doesn’t sound like much, but when it comes to the gender wage gap, a penny is a big deal. The pay gap just got worse. With EQUAL PAY DAY in March, new data shows that in 2023, for the first time, year-round in two decades, the gender wage gap widened significantly. A November 2024 report in HerMoney.com found between 2022 and 2023, the wage gap grew by 1 cent for women working full-time, year round. “This is the first statistically significant annual decrease in the female-to-male earnings ratio since 2003,” the U.S. Census Bureau noted. While experts say COVID (which forced many women to step away from their careers) could partially be to blame, there are a number of other factors at play. AAUW CEO Gloria Blackwell said, “There’s no single explanation for why progress is stalled. The reasons for the pay gap are complex and impact women very differently based on their age, race and location.”
The wage gap impacts women at all career stages, but the effects are most profound in RETIREMENT. On all three components of the ‘three-legged-stool’ of retirement security – Social Security, pension and savings – women fall short, largely due to account balances. As a result women have 70% of the income that men have during retirement. Mandating pay data collection by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was begun under the Obama administration in an effort to address pay disparities. Compensation, for the first time, would be reported by gender in each job by pay ranges. The first ground-breaking reports including the new pay data were issued in 2018 and 2019, representing a giant-leap—but did not last. The new EEOC requirements were promptly scrapped by President Donald Trump’s Executive Order in his first term.
Now, In addition to President Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) just crippling any EEOC activity by immediately firing its Board Members, a slew of new 2025 Executive Orders promotes eradication of any and all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts. This flies in the face of female gains in representation on corporate boards. A Bloomberg Intelligence 12/9/24 report found “Female representation in the boardroom almost tripled with the most gender diverse companies delivering higher shareholder returns compared to male-dominated boards.” Women made up 26% of boards in 2023, up from 9% in 2010. A new Bloomberg study found that the top 20% of companies with female board membership returned 2% to 5% more than the bottom 20% in developed markets. At the end of the day, higher performance is linked to higher diversity. Nevertheless, President Trump pledged to create a cabinet hostile to diversity initiatives.
In the new Trump administration DOGE seeks to dismantle the Department of Education. In order to apply for and participate in federal financial aid programs, students must submit sensitive personal information to the Education Department and authorize access their tax records. The Department retains this information for millions of current and former students and their family members. Under the Privacy Act, the Internal Revenue Code, and the Department’s own regulations, access to these records is strictly controlled. Access may be used only for specified purposes. Yet Elon Musk’s DOGE squad did get access to the computer systems that house these records. Public Citizen, representing the University of California Student Association, has sued to block DOGE from perpetrating a massive, dangerous, unprecedented invasion of privacy. At this writing a judge has issued a temporary restraining order against what DOGE is attempting at the Department of Education. The country is in uncharted waters and opposition in many forms is required.
Lilly Gioia