by Mitti Hicks
March 25, 2025
Payscale, Inc. has released its Gender Pay Gap Report for 2025.
Payscale, Inc. has released its Gender Pay Gap Report for 2025, and the results show little to no progress across several industries despite pay transparency laws. For the second straight year, women earn just 83 cents for every dollar men make
As the industry leader in compensation management, Payscale aims to help job seekers, employees, and businesses achieve fair pay across genders. For the 2025 report, analysts crowdsourced data from over 369,000 people in the United States who took Payscale’s free online salary survey between January 2024 and January 2025.
Some key takeaways from the report show that motherhood continues to hurt pay equity for working parents. Fathers get a raise, but women with children earn just 75 cents for every dollar fathers make, unchanged from last year’s report.
Unfortunately, the gap for motherhood is even wider for women of color, who earn 64 cents for every dollar fathers earn, according to the report.
Overall, fatherhood benefits men, who earn 2% more than men without children. Mothers, on the other hand, face stagnant or reduced pay compared to women without children.
How Higher Education Impacts Gender Pay Gap
Despite earning advanced degrees like MBAs, law degrees, and health professional doctorates, women still face a significant pay gap. Education alone doesn’t guarantee pay equity.
Women with MBAs face the most significant uncontrolled pay gap, earning just 77 cents for every dollar earned by men with the same degree. Health professional doctorates have the smallest uncontrolled pay gap at 89 cents. Women with law degrees earn 87 cents for every dollar men with the same degree make, a slight decrease from 2024.
The controlled gender pay gap is the amount women earn for every dollar a man earns when accounting for job title and compensable factors. The uncontrolled gender refers to the pay gap difference in median pay for men and women overall.
Gender Pay Gap In Leadership Roles
According to the report, women are less likely to reach leadership roles and, when they do, earn less as their careers progress.
White men are the most likely to hold leadership positions, with 45% serving as managers or in higher roles. Women are underrepresented in leadership roles, with only 5% of white women becoming executives compared to 7% of white men. The numbers are even lower for women of color: 4% for Black or African American women, 3% for Hispanic women, and 3% for Asian women.
Women who ascend the corporate ladder earn less than their male counterparts, and the gap widens at higher levels. Women at the executive level earn 93 cents for every dollar men make, even when controlling for job characteristics, and just 72 cents when not controlling for these factors.
Across the industry, the biggest pay gaps are found in occupations deeply rooted in gender norms. In legal, women make 63 cents for every dollar men make. In farming and fishing industries, women make 77 cents for every dollar men make, and in management, women make 79 cents for every dollar men make.
The gender pay gap is also widest in finance and insurance. Women make 78 cents for every dollar men make, despite women making up 53% of the workforce.
Even in female-dominated industries, pay disparities persist. In healthcare, women make 89 cents for every dollar men make. Women in education make 91 cents for every dollar men make, and in nonprofit industries, women make 88 cents for every dollar men make.
“It’s disappointing to still see a lack of progress towards closing the gender pay gap. Beyond being the right thing to do, ensuring fair pay without discrimination is required by law. This fact alone should support closing the gender pay gap,” said Lulu Seikaly, senior corporate employment attorney at Payscale. “Pay transparency has an important role to play here. When an employee has an understanding of their compensation trajectory, it increases trust and loyalty.”
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