Motherhood Penalty vs. Fatherhood Bonus: A Closer Look at the Gender Pay Gap in 2024

The gender pay gap remains a stubborn fixture in the modern workforce, with recent findings highlighting ways women continue to face financial penalties even in remote work settings.  

A new study published by Payscale reveals that despite efforts to close the gender pay gap, women still earn only 83 cents for every one dollar earned by men — a figure that is reported to not have improved from the previous year. 

This figure is found when researchers measured the “uncontrolled gender pay gap,” which looks closely at the median salary for all women and all men. The figure is sometimes referred to as “the opportunity gap.”  

The report also measured the “controlled gap,” which measured “how women are paid compared to men in the same jobs or similar jobs with similar qualifications.”  

Data on the controlled gender gap reveals that women earn 99 cents for every one dollar earned by men. While this is much closer of a gap compared to the opportunity gap its worth nothing that there are many industries with very wide gender pay gaps — regardless of if women had the same qualifications as men in the same positions. Additionally, representation of women in these industries and businesses might be lower, on-average, than men.  

According to Payscale, the top 20 positions with the widest controlled gender pay gap included: 

• Jobs in sales. 
• Jobs in religious organizations.  
• Jobs in finance 
• Jobs in installation.  
• Maintenance and repair jobs in manufacturing. 
• Jobs in operations.  
• Jobs in surgery.  

The data also sheds light on the motherhood penalty, a substantial financial penalty many women experience in the workforce when becoming a parent.  

According to the report, “When women indicated they were a parent or primary caregiver, we observed an uncontrolled pay gap of $0.75 for every dollar earned by a male parent, which is the same as last year. When we hold all else equal, mothers earn $0.98 for every dollar earned by fathers with the same employment characteristics.”  

For women embracing the flexibility of remote work, the pay gap worsens, with women reportedly earning 79 cents on the dollar compared to their male peers who work remotely. 

According to a report on the data published by Forbes, while pay transparency laws have been implemented in states like California, Connecticut, and New York, they have yet to make a significant dent in the uncontrolled pay gap, which accounts for differences in job type and qualifications.  

However, the study does highlight encouraging trends as well.  

The survey reveals that American Indian, Alaska Native, Black, and Hispanic women, who have all historically had the widest gender pay gaps, have seen the controlled gender pay gap close as of 2024.    

According to the survey, “Since 2019, the gender pay gap has closed by $0.05 for Black women, by $0.05 for American Indian and Native Alaskan women, by $0.04 for Hispanic women, and by $0.04 for women who are Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander. It has closed by $0.02 for white women and $0.01 for Asian women.” 

This study underscores the complex nature of gender inequality in the workplace and the additional challenges posed by remote work and parenthood. The report dives deeper into the top 20 jobs with the largest pay gaps and suggests the need for continued efforts to address these disparities.