One chart shows the gap between men's and women's salaries is shrinking — and it's good news for anyone looking for a job right now

• A new report indicates the wage gap in the US is closing, at least when it comes to the salaries of new hires.
• Women who were new hires were offered salaries comparable to about 96% of their male counterparts, indicating the lowest difference, 4%, it's ever been.
• That's according to a new report from the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Michigan that looked at salary data of new hires in July 2020.
• Despite the hopeful trend, the gender wage gap is still a national problem.
• White women, on average, earn 80% of what white men do, while black women earn 66% and Hispanic women earn 58%, a pay gap of 42%, according to the US Census Bureau's 2018 data.

The US may be making strides toward closing the pay gap — at least for new hires.

That's according to new data from the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Michigan that looked at salary data of new hires in July 2020. The data was originally reported by Bloomberg.

It shows that recently hired women were offered salaries comparable to about 96% of men's — which is an improvement from previous years. For example, in 2015 new hires who were women earned 88.8% of what men did.

While the data is encouraging, it is by no means cause for celebration. The pay gap is still a consistent problem across the board.

The news comes just a few weeks after 2020's Equal Pay Day on Aug. 13. This date indicates how far into 2020 a Black female worker would have to work to earn as much as a white male worker did in 2019 alone.

W.E. Upjohn Institute did not immediately return request for comment on any racial breakdown of data.

White women, on average, earn 80% of what white men do, while black women earn 66% and Hispanic women earn 58%, a pay gap of 42%, according to the US Census Bureau's 2018 1-year American Community Survey.