New York women must work 53 extra days to match men's earnings as pay gap persists

The gender pay gap is growing in New York.

A report compiled by State Comptroller Thomas Dinapoli found women in New York earned 87 cents on the dollar compared to men in 2023. Women would have to work an extra 53 days per year to make the same amount. In 2022, women earned 87.5 cents/dollar compared to men, according to the New York Department of Labor.

In New York, the median earnings for women working full-time year-round in 2023 was $62,111, compared to the $72,168 for men. Reporting from the Department of Labor finds the overall gender pay gap decreased during the pandemic, but also “set women’s labor force participation back more than 30 years, with the greatest declines among women of color and in low-wage occupations."

Dinapoli's report found several contributing factors:

• Education helps bridge the pay gap, with 2023 median earnings for New York women with a bachelor’s, graduate or professional degree were 78 cents on the dollar to what men earned, compared to 67 cents for women with less than a high school diploma.
• Among occupational groups, New York’s wage gap is highest in the legal field, which also has the highest median earnings. In 2023, women had median earnings of $113,699 compared to $166,678 for men in legal jobs, or 68 cents on the dollar.
• In 2024, 56% of New York women participated in the labor force compared to 66% of men, lower than the national averages of 58% of women and 68% of men. Family and caretaking responsibilities can lead women to reduce or forgo participation in the workforce.

The gender pay gap in New York was smaller than the national average of 81 cents on the dollar in 2023, as reported in the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey data. In 2023, New York ranked 4th best among the states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The national gap has been 6.7 percentage points wider than the state’s, on average, since 2015. Data for 2024 has not yet been compiled.