There's A Gender Pay Gap At Every Age, And It Only Gets Worse As Workers Get Older

Wells Fargo

There are two things going on here: first, there's a wage gap no matter what the age. Women, even in high school, even after graduating from college, at 16 and 26 and 36, make less than their male peers.

Second, the gap gets much worse as workers get into middle age. For the last half decade or so, there's been no noticeable difference between the gap for young workers (16-24 years old) and the not-quite-entry-level cohort (25-34 year olds, otherwise known as millennials).

But when you look at all workers over 25, the gap increases - women of all ages make only 80% of what their male peers make.

There are a few reasons for these trends, according to Wells Fargo:

1) millennial men have lower labor force participation rates than previous generations (while millennial women's participation rates haven't changed in a while)

2) women still bear the brunt of the family responsibilities, and thus end up working fewer hours than their male counterparts

3) women self-select into lower-paid industries

Because of these trends, particularly numbers two and three, Wells Fargo thinks that the fate of millennial women is going to be roughly the same as the women who have come before.

Equal pay is still a few generations away, it seems.