A fresh national survey reveals a significant disconnect between how working men and women view wage equality in the workplace, with compensation emerging as a primary concern for female employees.
The research from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows approximately 60% of working women believe men receive better opportunities for competitive compensation, while roughly one-third think neither gender holds an advantage. Nearly 30% of female workers report personally facing wage discrimination due to their gender.
Male perspectives tell a different story: roughly 40% acknowledge men have wage advantages, while half believe both genders enjoy similar opportunities and 10% think women have better prospects. Only about 10% of men report experiencing gender-based wage discrimination themselves.
The study also reveals that most working women consider their current pay a “major” life stressor, compared to approximately 40% of working men who feel similarly.
These findings emerge as male earnings climb faster than female wages, with the gender pay gap expanding for two consecutive years, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
This trend influenced Equal Pay Day’s timing — the symbolic date representing how many additional days women must work to match men’s previous year earnings — which occurred Thursday, one day later than in 2025. However, this still represents improvement from the inaugural Equal Pay Day on April 11, 1996, when women earned roughly 75 cents per male dollar.
The nation remains split on addressing gender pay disparities. Numerous Democratic-controlled states are implementing pay transparency legislation designed to expose unfair practices, including mandating salary range disclosure in job advertisements.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s current administration has reduced certain agencies and restricted legal mechanisms previously used to investigate unfair compensation practices, contending these tools undermined merit-based systems and wrongly assumed workplace disparities stemmed from discrimination.
Jessica Thompson, 47, describes witnessing gender bias throughout her career. Before losing her position in January, Thompson earned $65,000 annually as a senior sales manager in Rockford, Illinois, while a male colleague with comparable qualifications made $87,000.
“I really had to prove myself over four years to get the role. And you know, he just came in, just within a few months and got it,” Thompson explained.
The survey indicates women particularly view wages as problematic. Approximately 20% of women report hiring discrimination based on gender, with men reporting similar experiences at comparable rates.
Key factors driving the gender wage gap include women’s overrepresentation in lower-paying positions, especially among Black and Hispanic women, plus the “motherhood penalty.” Research demonstrates women’s earnings decline after having children while men’s wages typically increase upon becoming fathers.
Female earnings remained nearly flat in 2024, while male earnings surged 3.7%, expanding the gender wage gap for the second consecutive year following two decades of gradual improvement, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau analysis of full-time worker earnings. Women working full-time averaged 80.9% of male earnings in 2024, down from 82.7% in 2023.
Beyond pay equity concerns, the poll found working women experience greater economic stress across multiple areas.
About 60% of working women describe grocery costs and housing expenses as “major” life stressors, with 56% saying the same about their compensation. In contrast, roughly 40% of working men share these concerns.
Economists partially attribute the widening pay gap to many low-wage women returning to work post-pandemic, which reduced average female earnings. However, the past two years have also seen declining labor force participation among mothers with young children, partly due to return-to-office requirements reducing pandemic-era workplace flexibility.
Democratic legislators have criticized the Trump administration for complicating wage discrimination investigations as part of efforts to eliminate diversity and inclusion programs.
Trump has directed federal agencies to cease enforcing “disparate impact liability,” a civil rights legal concept used in wage discrimination cases against major corporations. The Labor Department has also significantly reduced the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, an agency that audited major companies’ pay practices and secured hundreds of millions in compensation for women and minorities affected by unfair policies.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has shifted focus toward prioritizing anti-DEI investigations, claiming men, particularly white men, face discrimination from practices designed to advance women and minorities in workplaces.
The poll suggests few men consider themselves disadvantaged compared to women professionally. Only about 10% of working men believe women have superior opportunities regarding competitive wages or career advancement.
Michael Bettger, a 51-year-old mechanic earning $26 hourly in rural Arkansas, has seen his wages decline due to layoffs and a decade-long battle with opioid addiction that began after a workplace back injury. Despite his struggles, he believes women face greater challenges advancing in his male-dominated field due to witnessed misogyny, noting fellow mechanics joke about accident-proneness caused by female colleague distractions.
“Men do have an advantage and more opportunities for wages. I’ve seen that first hand,” Bettger stated. “I have a daughter who wants to be a mechanic, and I’m scared to death of what kind of work she’s going to get.”
The AP-NORC poll surveyed 1,156 adults from February 5-8 using NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, designed to represent the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all adults is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
