Marketing to Women: The Gender Wage Gap
December 4, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Women on average make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. If the gender wage gap were closed and women were paid equitably, it could have unbelievable impact to our economy. This fact should not be too surprising to marketers. The robust economy that we enjoyed from the 1970s through 2000s was fueled by the two-income household which allowed for time-saving appliances, two cars, vacations, larger homes and higher education.
Today, we need a different boost because of the large number of working women. Women are now half of all workers on U.S payrolls, two-thirds of mothers are bringing home at least a quarter of the family’s earnings, and 4 in 10 mothers are either the sole breadwinner (a single, working mother) or are bringing home as much or more than their spouse.
Economist Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, estimates that the stimulus effect of wage equality would grow the U.S. economy by at least three to four percentage points. By comparison, the $800 billion economic stimulus package that Congress passed in 2009 to bail banks out of the recession is estimated to have grown the GDP by less than 1.5 percent overall. The growth estimate gets larger if you consider how many women would be drawn into the workforce is wages were increased.
Oh, and don’t forget. Women are more likely to stimulate the economy by spending the additional money we receive. Because women are the chief purchasing officer for their families.
For more information on the gender wage gap, here’s a great infographic created by LearnStuff.com:
