Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
- Societal conditioning leads women to undervalue their work even when setting their own rates — and hence charge less than their male counterparts.
- Peer networks, pricing benchmarks, and mentorship programs can help close the gap.
- Addressing client bias, industry clustering, and policy reform will ensure a more equitable future for freelance pay rates.
Despite some progress toward gender equality in the workplace, a notable pay gap still remains. Women know this. So does the gender pricing gap disappear when freelancers set their own rates? Unfortunately, the answer is no.
Even with complete control over their rates, women often charge significantly less than men. Studies reveal disparities ranging from 26% to as high as 48%, depending on the industry and region — with an average gap of 15%. In concrete terms, male freelancers charge around $60 more for comparable services.
This gender pricing gap reflects broader patterns seen in traditional employment, where women consistently undervalue their work or face pressure to undercharge.
Transparency is essential to create a more equitable freelance economy, and women must be empowered to set competitive rates and challenge the norms that allow unequal pricing to persist. Freelancers deserve to be paid fairly for their talent — regardless of gender.
So why, when the problem is so glaring, does it remain? The pricing gap between male and female freelancers is a complex issue shaped by systemic, cultural, and personal factors.
What the Data Tell Us
In 2024, women earned the equivalent of only 83 cents for every dollar made by men, with the gap even wider for women of color and working mothers in office roles where pay is largely out of their control. But when individuals have the autonomy to set their own rates as freelancers, the disparity persists.
A recent study by Career.io, which analyzed data from over 7,000 U.S.-based freelancers across various industries, found that female freelancers charge 14.9% less per hour than their male counterparts. The median hourly rate for men was $80.11, compared to $69.67 for women. That means, on average, women charge less across every industry studied.
For an 8-hour project, that’s nearly a $50 difference for the same work: $567.84 for men vs. $516.32 for women.
Another analysis by OnDeck, based on the hourly rates of over 9,000 U.S.-based freelancers on Upwork, revealed an even wider gap. Male freelancers charged an average of $75.44 per hour, 26.4% more than women, who charged $59.70.
The disparity is more pronounced in technical fields. In legal services, for example, men charge an average of $144.78 per hour, while women charge only $68.19 — a difference of over $76 per hour. In lower-paying fields (such as administrative support and customer service), where women charge slightly more on average than their male counterparts, the higher rates do not offset the broader pricing gap.
According to OnDeck, male freelancers charge more than female freelancers in every U.S. state except one. Delaware is the lone outlier, where women charge $13.83 more per hour than men. Wyoming shows the widest gap: men charge $86.09 per hour, while women charge only $30.20 — a difference of $55.89, or 185%.
More examples from Career.io show how stark these gaps can be:
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- In Sales and Marketing, male freelancers earn about $25 more per hour, amounting to nearly $1,000 more for a 40-hour project.
- In Data Science, the gap narrows to 19%, but women still earn $561.20 less per week.
- In AI Writing and Documentation, women charge 18% less than men — translating to $48.33 less per hour.
Some fields are more balanced, but disparities persist:
- In Engineering & Architecture, the gap is smaller at 9.6%, yet women still charge less in most specialties.
- The narrowest gap is in Narration, where male and female rates differ by just $1 per hour.
- The Design & Creative sector comes closest to parity, with men charging just 2.4% more than women.
- In Mathematics & Statistics, interestingly, women charge almost double what men do.
The findings indicate that the gender pricing gap persists and is prevalent across the world of freelancing.
In the U.K., self-employed men earn 43% more than women in the same sector. For example, male electricians charge an average of £26.51 per hour, while women charge £18.54 — a gap of £7.97 per hour, or approximately £16,583 more annually for men.
The Root Causes of the Freelance Gender Pay Gap
The reasons women consistently charge less than men extend beyond individual pricing choices. The disparity stems from systemic bias, cultural conditioning, and internalized beliefs that shape how women value — and advocate for — their work.
One major factor is systemic bias, particularly in how clients perceive value. Studies suggest that unconscious bias leads clients to view male freelancers as more capable, especially in male-dominated fields such as legal services, IT, and engineering.
These perceptions influence hiring decisions and rate acceptance (clients are more likely to agree to higher fees when proposed by men).
Self-confidence also plays an essential role in rate-setting. A landmark study published by the National Library of Medicine describes the “male hubris, female humility” effect, where men consistently rate their intelligence and competence higher than women — even when actual ability is equal.
This difference in self-perception can lead women to undervalue their expertise. High self-esteem correlates directly with the ability to price services competitively, yet studies show that women, on average, report lower academic and professional self-esteem than men.
Valerie Young, an expert on impostor syndrome, correlates low self-esteem directly with income inequality. In a recent Allwork.Space podcast, she explained that when women fear being perceived as inadequate, they are more likely to undercharge or avoid negotiation. She emphasizes the importance of peer support, internal validation, and mindset work for achieving financial parity.
Negotiation behaviors differ significantly between genders. Research indicates that women are less likely to negotiate their rates, and when they engage in negotiations, they often do so with less assertiveness.
This tendency is not due to a lack of ability — it stems from social conditioning that discourages women from self-advocating. According to the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE), 41% of self-employed women feel they need training on pricing techniques, such as how to raise their rates — while only 34% of self-employed men express the same need. This disparity highlights the unequal distribution of confidence in pricing strategies among the genders.
Cultural norms also contribute to occupational segregation. Women are disproportionately represented in lower-paying freelance sectors, while men dominate high-paying industries such as tech, law, and engineering.
This division is not random — it reflects decades of structural inequality that have limited women’s access to education, mentorship, and career advancement in lucrative fields. These patterns reinforce a freelance economy where men command top-tier rates.
Even in sectors where women are well-represented, their contributions are often undervalued. Roles traditionally associated with women’s work are commonly perceived as less technical or valuable; this concept is known as the undervaluation theory.
Many women also carry the invisible burden of emotional labor, such as feeling guilty about charging too much, which can further suppress their rates.
Finally, pay secrecy in freelancing compounds the issue. With limited transparency and no universal rating benchmarks, many women do not know they are undercharging. Without access to comparable pricing information, it becomes harder to negotiate confidently — or even recognize that a gap exists.
These systemic, structural, and psychological factors explain why women freelancers earn less even when they set their own rates.
Closing the Gender Freelance Rate Gap: How To Move Toward a Fairer Future
Addressing the freelance gender pay gap requires confronting deep-seated beliefs about worth and confidence, enhancing access to pricing tools and negotiation training, and advocating for greater transparency and accountability across all industries.
It demands bold systemic change and challenging the norms that sustain unequal pay.
One of the most persistent challenges is the undervaluation of women’s work. Improving negotiation confidence is essential to tackle this. Many women either avoid negotiating altogether or start with lower initial quotes.
Experts, therefore, suggest quoting higher upfront, using client testimonials to justify pricing, and establishing a personal “rate floor” to avoid underselling their time.
Initiatives such as FreelanceHER 100 help to close this gap by mentoring women in building sustainable businesses, advocating for their value, and encouraging them to price their labor confidently.
Transparency can also be a game-changer. When freelancers openly share their rates within professional networks, it creates vital benchmarks and breaks down the secrecy that often favors men.
Freelance platforms and industry groups can support this by publishing pricing guides and initiating honest discussions around pay. When women know what others are earning, they are more likely to charge what they are worth.
However, individual progress can only extend so far without structural reform. Freelance platforms and clients should actively tackle bias in rate-setting and project allocation. This provision could involve bias training for clients and deliberate efforts to include women in high-paying freelance opportunities.
In fact, encouraging more women into high-earning fields — including tech, consulting, and engineering — is necessary to disrupt gender clustering in lower-paying sectors.
Cities that are making progress serve as hopeful examples. In places such as Sacramento, Calif., and Chattanooga, Tenn., more women are stepping into management roles and earning higher median incomes — suggesting a gradual transition toward equity. These local economies demonstrate what is possible when communities invest in equitable opportunities.
At a policy level, robust measures are necessary to enforce fair pay. These measures include legislation targeting wage discrimination, tax incentives for equitable employers, and broader access to financial education.
While salary transparency laws have started to reveal pay gaps, their effectiveness will remain limited unless we address occupational segregation, care-giving burdens, and entrenched biases.
Closing the pricing gap calls for a multi-layered solution that addresses personal, structural, and cultural barriers holding women back. We must address the charging gap now to ensure long-term financial stability, wealth-building, professional growth and full participation in the future of work for women.
If we do not confront the structural and cultural forces contributing to this disparity, the freelance industry will continue to reflect the inequalities in the traditional workforce.
Change is achievable with the right tools, support, and meaningful systemic reform. When this happens, freelancing will no longer have a hidden price tag for women.
