Women Outnumber Men in U.S. Payrolls—But Still Earn 83¢ on the Dollar

Women now hold a majority of U.S. payroll jobs for only the third time in recorded history—a crossover that arrived without a recession behind it. The job-count milestone, however, comes bundled with a stubborn starting-salary gap: women who earned a bachelor's degree in 2023 took home an average of $59,778, compared with $72,190 for men with the same credential, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

That's 83 cents on the dollar before a first promotion, a first child, or a single year on the job.

How did women pull ahead?

The last two payroll majorities for women came during the Great Recession around 2010 and just before the pandemic in early 2020—each driven by male-dominated sectors losing ground. This third crossover is different. Over the past 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, women's employment grew by more than 870,000 while men shed nearly 1.5 million jobs. In August's jobs report alone, women took 158,000 of the 162,000 positions added; men accounted for just 2%.

Health care, education, and hospitality—fields where women dominate—logged consistent gains in a tight labor market. The result: a workforce that looks fundamentally different from the one of the 1990s. Roughly 7 million fewer men are employed today than in 1990, and the labor force participation rate for men 20 and older slipped to 69.4% in August 2026, down from 75.8% in August 2006.

Is men's retreat temporary or structural?

Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at the Indeed Hiring Lab and a former senior regional economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, called the shift lasting. "This seems to be more of a long-term decline that's led to a more permanent shift going forward, or at least a semi-permanent," she told Fortune.

Economists offer competing explanations. Some blame video games for "the crisis of the American male." Others, including University of Connecticut's Remy Levin and Daniela Vidart, argue young men who come of age in markets defined by high unemployment and weak wages grow pessimistic and opt out altogether. Either way, the trajectory looks durable.

Why does the pay gap persist?

Women earn 81 cents for every dollar men earn across the economy—and the gap widens with age. Over a typical 40-year career, women lose $542,800 to men; women of color lose more than $1 million over the same span.

The occupations women dominate do much of the damage. Women make up two-thirds of workers in low-wage jobs, outnumber men in teaching by 3 to 1 and in nursing by 8 to 1, and hold less than a third of science and engineering roles. The pay floor in those fields drags down the average.

Parenthood is the single biggest accelerant. Research that won Claudia Goldin the Nobel Prize found early-career pay gaps are modest—until a woman has her first child. From that moment, her earnings fall and never climb at the same rate as fathers', even within identical professions and education levels. Post-pandemic return-to-office mandates have compounded the hit on mothers who serve as primary caretakers.

What does the milestone actually mean?

Ullrich, who has tracked the data for years, warned against celebration. "You could look at it and say, 'Yay, women.' But I don't think it's necessarily a positive story for women overall," she said of August's hiring surge.

The numbers argue her point: women are filling America's workplaces faster than men, yet leaving campuses already 17% behind on pay. Until the structural drivers—occupational segregation and the motherhood penalty—shift, the payroll lead will keep looking less like a win and more like a warning sign for the broader labor market.