October 2024
Labor pains or labor gains?
Though women have predominantly driven job growth over the past few years, pay disparity and childcare costs can impede progress.
Key takeaways
- Sectors with the highest share of female workers contributed nearly 20% towards total U.S. GDP in 2023, and have largely supported continued labor market strength. In fact, according to Bank of America small business account data, payroll growth in these women-intensive sectors has outpaced overall growth for over a year.
- However, these sectors tend to pay less, and using Bank of America internal deposit account data, we find women's median annual income has yet to catch up to men's 2019 average, suggesting more than a five-year lag in pay parity. Yet, there are signs of a narrowing gender gap: women's pay raises associated with a job change are growing at a faster rate than men's.
- Beyond sectoral variations, women with younger children historically have had a lower labor force participation rate than their peers. Since April 2023, the number of households who pay for childcare and have more than one person working has consistently declined, per Bank of America internal data. And with childcare costs outpacing overall inflation, this could further reduce working hours for women and put increased financial pressure on families.
Read our full analysis for a more in-depth look at these trends.
