Pay Gap Lookup: Real Numbers by Profession, State, and Experience
Based on US Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey (median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers, 2024) and Census ACS state-level ratios.
Type a profession. See the actual US median earnings for women and men in that job, how your state modifies that gap, what it compounds to over a career, and how your profession compares to the US all-occupations baseline.
Executive compensation tier
Senior leadership compensation (VP through CEO) follows different rules — bonus, equity, and book-of-business drive most of the gap. Select a tier to see the typical compensation range, the documented gender gap, and a direct link to the underlying research. These figures reflect median compensation and real research on gender gaps at each level.
First-line Manager 13.9% gap · $16K/yr
Gap driver: Broken rung — women 18% less likely to be promoted to first-line manager than men with comparable reviews.
Director 14.6% gap · $26K/yr
Gap driver: Sponsor/advocate gap — women 25% less likely to have senior advocates pushing them into high-visibility projects that drive Director-level advancement.
Vice President 17.3% gap · $51K/yr
Gap driver: Bonus discretion widens at VP tier; subjective evaluation of 'leadership presence' and 'strategic thinking' consistently reviews lower for women on identical behavior.
Senior Vice President 20.0% gap · $90K/yr
Gap driver: Equity packages for SVP hires — women negotiate 15% less equity on average at the SVP tier (signing bonus + initial grant).
C-Suite (CFO, COO, CMO, CTO) 20.0% gap · $144K/yr
Gap driver: C-suite women cluster in 'support' roles (CHRO, CMO) which historically pay 25-30% less than 'operating' C-suite roles (CFO, COO). Within the same role, gap persists at 10-15%.
Public-Company CEO (S&P 500) +11.7% gap · $1.70M/yr
Gap driver: Women S&P 500 CEOs earn slightly more than male peers on average — but this reflects selection (the very few women who reach CEO tend to lead larger companies). The pipeline effect dominates: only 11.2% of S&P 500 CEOs are women.
Methodology & limitations
Profession figures are US median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by detailed occupation and sex (BLS Labor Force Statistics Table 39, most recent published year). Annualized by ×52. State modifiers are the state female-to-male earnings ratio from the American Community Survey 5-year estimates (S2001) divided by the national ratio, applied as a proportional adjustment to the female figure. Experience adjustment uses the BLS age-band earnings curve within the occupational group. Lifetime earnings assume 40 working years, 2% real wage growth, and are shown in today's dollars. The tool is for estimation only; individual earnings vary.