Unmarried Women and the Wage Gap

January 27, 2016

Seven years ago, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act as a step toward closing the pay gap between men and women. Progress has been made since then, but women still only make 79 cents for every dollar a man makes, and the disparity is even greater for unmarried women, who earned just 69 percent compared to every dollar a man makes.

One out of every two women in the United States is unmarried – divorced, separated, widowed or never been married – and their numbers are growing rapidly. This November, for the first time in our history there will be more unmarried women eligible to vote than married women.

But unmarried women are living in a very different, harsher economic reality than married women:

Unmarried women are twice as likely as married women to be unemployed. (7.3% unmarried women; 3.1% married women)
Unmarried women are four times as likely as married women to be living in poverty. (21.7% unmarried women; 5.6% married women)
Unmarried women are more than three times more likely than married women to earn the minimum wage (45.4% unmarried women; 13.5% married women) or below minimum wage (49.7% unmarried women; 15.9% unmarried women)

Clearly, for unmarried women, “equal pay can’t wait.” But at the current rate, the pay gap won’t be eliminated for more than 100 years. That’s why we are applauding state lawmakers in more than 20 states who will celebrate the 7th Anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Act on January 29th by joining a nationally-coordinated effort to introduce legislation in their states to ensure women are paid equally for doing the same work as men.

See what the wage gap is in your state. The disparity from state to state is startling.

What We're Reading

U.S. Census: Unmarried and Single Americans Week

To commemorate Unmarried and Single Americans Week (September 17-23), the U.S. Census has produced a “Facts for Features” profile (PDF) of 2016 census data about unmarried Americans. Here are some of the highlights:

There are 110.6 unmarried people 18 or older in America, making up 45.2% of the U.S. adult population.
35.4 million Americans lived alone in 2016, representing 28.1% of all US households — up from 17.1% in 1970.
Despite unmarried people being 45.2% of the U.S. adult population, only 39.6% of voters in the 2016 presidential election were unmarried.

Read the rest of the U.S. Census Bureau’s “Facts for Features” profile (PDF) on unmarried Americans.

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For the first time, millennials next year will pass baby boomers as the largest generation of Americans eligible to vote, according to the well-respected demographic forecasts from the States of Change project at the Center for American Progress, a liberal advocacy group. That transition will end a remarkable four decades of dominance for the baby boomers, who have been the largest generation of eligible voters since 1978, when they surpassed what’s been popularly referred to as the Greatest Generation (or G.I. Generation) raised during the Depression. Read more here.

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Unmarried Women and the Wage Gap

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