New York State's Gender Pay Gap: Progress And Challenges

On March 25, 2025, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul recognized Equal Pay Day.

According to AAUW.org, Equal Pay Day raises awareness around and combats the impact of pay inequities. The current gender pay gap for women is 83% for full-time, year-round workers and 75% for all workers, including part-time and seasonal workers.

Governor Hochul has pledged to fight for equal pay for all workers in New York State, stating how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.

According to the Governor's announcement, women are often paid less than their male colleagues, and this is one of the foremost challenges facing the labor market not only in New York State, but across the nation.

The release from Governor Hochul's Office notes that, according to the New York State Department of Labor, data from 2023 found that women working full-time, year-round in New York State were paid 87.3 cents for every dollar that men were paid.

The national average is 81.1 cents per dollar. While there's still work to be done to make all things equal, on the upside, New York State had the third smallest wage gap among states in the nation, behind Vermont and Rhode Island.

Women are too often the first to care for a child or an aging parent, sacrificing their own financial security in the process, and in New York, we refuse to accept this as the status quo. We are doing the hard work. We've enshrined abortion rights in our constitution, guaranteed women 20 hours of paid prenatal leave, expanded access to childcare, developed workforce development programs to expand opportunities for women and bolster our Minority and Women Owned Business Programs — because when women have the freedom and support to succeed, our entire economy grows. Equal pay isn't just about fairness; it's about building a stronger, more equitable future for all, and as New York's first woman Governor, this is a fight I look forward to winning. - New York State Governor Kathy Hochul

The New York State Department of Labor broke down the numbers as an example:

To put these numbers another way, a woman earning the median income in New York State ($62,111) earned $9,057 less than her male counterpart in 2023. If this wage gap were to remain unchanged, she would earn $362,280 less than a man earning the median wage over the course of a 40-year career.

For more information about Equal Pay Day, visit Governor Hochul's website.