The average male in Hawaiʻi out-earned the average female by 50%, a smaller margin than the 69% gap observed nationally, but according to a new University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization (UHERO) blog, the margin is “still very large.” UHERO cites data from the American Community Survey spanning 2015 to 2022.
“These aggregate figures, however, overlook crucial factors such as educational attainment and occupation, which significantly impact earnings,” wrote UHERO Research Economist Rachel Inafuku, the author of the blog. “An accurate measure of the gender pay gap needs to consider whether women with similar skill levels and educational backgrounds earn less than their male counterparts.”
When examining earnings across education levels from 2015 to 2022, lifetime earnings are consistently higher for men than women, even within the same level of education. The smallest discrepancy is found among individuals with professional or doctoral degrees, where men earn 33% to 35% more than women holding the same degree.
The most substantial gap surfaces among those who attended college but didn’t complete their degree: men in this group earn 63% more than their female counterparts. For a woman to match the lifetime earnings of a man with some college experience but no degree, she would need to attain at least a master’s degree. At every educational tier, women in the subsequent degree bracket fail to surpass the earnings of men at the previous education level.
Pay gap across occupations
Among the 130 occupations examined in UHERO’s sample, men earned more than women in 82% of these careers, while 18% of these professions saw women earning more. Occupations such as financial managers, chief executives, and pharmacists exhibited some of the lowest ratios of female to male earnings, indicating that women working these jobs earn much less than men. Conversely, roles like hosts/hostesses, bartenders, and paralegals show the highest ratios of female to male earnings.
The gender pay gap has been a focal point in economics especially within the past year when Claudia Goldin won the Nobel Prize for uncovering key drivers of gender differences in the labor market. While female labor participation increased substantially over the past century, Goldin found that the earnings gap between men and women in the U.S. hardly closed over a long period of time.
What drives Hawaiʻi’s gender pay gap?
Several national studies have found that women are more likely to prioritize home activities, such as reducing their work hours to care for their children, which often results in career sacrifices.
“Here in Hawaiʻi, the data aligns with Goldin’s findings,” Inafuku wrote. “Throughout their mid to late 20’s, men earn slightly more than women. After that, this pay differential widens as men’s wages grow at a much faster rate than women’s, and the gap continues over the course of a worker’s career.”
Read the entire blog on UHERO’s website.
UHERO is housed in UH Mānoa’s College of Social Sciences.
