Gender Wage Gap Calculator
Enter two salaries and this calculator measures the gap between them: the percentage difference, what the lower earner makes per dollar, and how the gap compounds over a career. It benchmarks your result against published national and global figures, with sources, so you can see whether the gap you entered is typical or extreme.
Quick Answer
With median salaries of $75,000 for men and $63,750 for women, the gap is 15.00%: women earn $0.850 for every dollar men earn, a difference of $11,250 a year, $937.50 a month, and $450,000 over a 40-year career. That sits just below the ~17% US benchmark. Enter your figures above.
- Quick Answer
- How the pay gap is calculated
- Worked example, checked against this exact tool
- Controlled vs uncontrolled: the distinction that changes everything
- Benchmarks worth knowing
- Why the lifetime number matters most
- What competing calculators miss
- Frequently asked questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
How the pay gap is calculated
The standard formula is (men’s median – women’s median) / men’s median x 100. Using medians rather than averages keeps a few very high earners from distorting the picture. The per-dollar figure is the same ratio expressed differently: 1 minus the gap. A 15% gap means $0.85 per dollar, per Pew Research Center and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
When the women’s figure is higher, the calculator reports a reverse gap instead of a negative number, so the result always reads naturally.
Key takeaways
- The formula is (higher minus lower) divided by higher, times 100: medians, not averages, so top earners do not distort it.
- The worked example gap is 15.00%, or $0.850 per dollar: $11,250 a year and $450,000 over 40 years.
- Uncontrolled and controlled gaps answer different questions: the economy as a whole versus one employer’s pay practices.
Worked example, checked against this exact tool
$75,000 and $63,750: the gap is ($75,000 – $63,750) / $75,000 x 100 = 15.00%. Per dollar: $0.850. Annual difference: $11,250. Monthly: $937.50. Weekly: $216.35. Over a 40-year career the difference compounds to $450,000. Enter these values above and the tool returns exactly these figures. The same annual difference converts to a monthly figure with an annual to monthly income calculator, and the hourly view behind the 83-cent figure comes from an annual to hourly calculator.
Controlled vs uncontrolled: the distinction that changes everything
The uncontrolled gap compares all full-time medians with no adjustments: about 17% in the US, or 83 cents per dollar, per Pew Research Center. The controlled gap compares men and women in the same job with the same qualifications, and it is much smaller. The uncontrolled number captures the whole system: occupational sorting, hours worked, career breaks, and negotiation differences, not just unequal pay for identical work, per the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
Both numbers are real; they answer different questions. Use the uncontrolled gap to talk about the economy, and the controlled gap to talk about a specific employer’s pay practices.
Benchmarks worth knowing
US: about 17% uncontrolled (83 cents median hourly, 2025), per Pew Research Center. All-workers measures run higher, around 22.5%, per the National Women’s Law Center. Global: roughly 17-20% uncontrolled, Canada: about 12%, and Australia: 21.1%, per the OECD gender wage gap indicator. The calculator’s benchmark selector uses these figures so your result lands in context, not in a vacuum.
Per dollar earned, by benchmark (each bar is 1 minus the stated gap)
Australia rounds to $0.79 from 21.1% (1 minus 0.211 equals 0.789).
Why the lifetime number matters most
An annual gap that looks modest becomes enormous over a career. A career income calculator shows how a full working life adds up, and because raises compound over time, a compound salary increase calculator shows how growth changes the lifetime picture. Recent analyses put the median lifetime cost above $1 million over a 40-year career at current gaps, before counting the compounding effects on pensions, savings and wealth, per the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. The motherhood penalty, time out of the workforce, and occupational segregation do most of this compounding, which is why the lifetime view belongs in any serious discussion of the gap, per UN Women.
What competing calculators miss
Most pay-gap tools compute the percentage and stop. They skip the per-dollar framing people actually quote, they never show the lifetime accumulation, and their benchmarks are uncited or years out of date. This page keeps the full readout, handles the reverse-gap case honestly, and cites current benchmarks from census, labor and international sources.
Frequently asked questions
The uncontrolled gap is (men’s median earnings – women’s median earnings) / men’s median earnings x 100. With $75,000 and $63,750, that is 15.00%, or $0.85 per dollar, per Pew Research Center.
The uncontrolled gap compares all medians with no adjustments (~17% in the US). The controlled gap compares the same job and qualifications and is much smaller. They answer different questions: the economy vs a specific employer, per the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
About 17% uncontrolled (women earning 83 cents per median hour, 2025 figures). All-workers measures are around 22.5%, per Pew Research Center and the National Women’s Law Center.
At a $11,250 annual gap, 40 years compounds to $450,000. Recent analyses estimate over $1 million in lost median earnings across a full career at current gaps, plus pension and wealth effects, per the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and UN Women.
Occupational sorting, differences in hours, career interruptions (especially the motherhood penalty), and negotiation differences explain most of the uncontrolled gap; the controlled gap isolates what remains within the same roles, per the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and UN Women.
The symbolic date marking how far into the new year women must work to earn what men earned the previous year. In the US it fell on March 26 in 2026, per the U.S. Census Bureau.
Yes. When women’s median earnings exceed men’s, the calculator reports a reverse gap rather than a negative number.
References
- U.S. Census Bureau. Equal Pay Day: March 26, 2026 (Accessed October 25, 2026).
- Pew Research Center. Women, work and caregiving through the arc of family life (Accessed October 25, 2026).
- Institute for Women's Policy Research. Equal pay research (Accessed October 25, 2026).
- National Women's Law Center. NWLC resources on poverty, income, and health insurance in 2025 (Accessed October 25, 2026).
- UN Women. Facts and figures: economic empowerment (Accessed October 25, 2026).
- OECD. Gender wage gap indicator (Accessed October 25, 2026).