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Women’s pay increases faster than men’s...until they hit age 30

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The gender pay gap starts early: 22-year-old women earn, on average, $8,900 less than their male counterparts for jobs that typically require a bachelor’s degree, according to Payscale, a salary-data collection service. Early on in their careers, however, women have a little bit of headway in playing catchup: The percentage growth in their pay is slightly higher than men’s pay growth throughout their twenties. By age 30, they still earn $14,300 less than men, but their pay raises up until that point had been higher than men’s, in percentage terms. Michael Yarish/AMC Guess who has to take him home?

That trend, however, abruptly stops after the age of 30, when college-educated women typically start having children. Their wage growth then slows significantly for the rest of their working years, compared with men’s, and then almost levels off completely at age 39, as Payscale charts:


(h/t Catherine Rampell)

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