Women have made significant gains in the workforce over the past 25 years, with higher wages, more full-time jobs, and improved earning power relative to men. But a new analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by MyPerfectResume finds that the overall earnings gap between men and women has continued to widen in dollar terms.
The analysis estimates the aggregate annual gender earnings gap exceeded $671 billion in 2025, up from about $327 billion in 2000, even as women reached record levels of workforce participation and pay.
Women’s Earnings Continue to Climb
Women’s median weekly earnings more than doubled between 2000 and 2025, increasing from $493 to about $1,089. During the same period, men’s median weekly earnings rose from $641 to about $1,326.
The gender pay ratio also improved. Women earned about 77 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2000, compared with roughly 82 cents in 2025.
The number of women working full time also grew substantially, with more than 9.5 million additional women joining the full-time workforce over the past 25 years.
Dollar Gap Keeps Growing
Despite those gains, the gap in annual earnings continued to increase.
The estimated annual difference between men’s and women’s earnings rose from about $7,700 in 2000 to roughly $12,300 in 2025, an increase of more than 60%.
According to the analysis, the widening aggregate gap reflects two trends occurring at the same time: women are earning more and participating in the workforce at higher rates, but the remaining pay difference is now spread across a much larger number of workers.
Researchers note the $671 billion figure is an estimate based on median earnings and is intended to illustrate the scale of persistent earnings differences across the workforce rather than measure actual wages lost.
Progress Hasn’t Eliminated the Gap
The report found women’s inflation-adjusted weekly earnings increased by about 17.9% since 2000, showing real wage growth over the period.
Even so, the analysis concludes that while the percentage pay gap has narrowed, the total earnings difference has continued to grow as the workforce expands.
The findings highlight that women have made measurable progress in earnings and employment, but substantial differences in overall earnings between men and women remain across the U.S. workforce.
