Gender Pay Gap Fueled by Experience and Career Choices

Women tend to build less human capital through work experience than men who start in the same occupations, as seen in the tens of thousands of career trajectories McKinsey & Co. analyzed. Over a 30-year career, the gender pay gap averages out to approximately half a million dollars in lost earnings per woman. 

Additionally, one-third of that work experience pay gap is because women accumulate less time on the job than men. Women average 8.6 years at work for every ten years clocked by men because, on aggregate, they work fewer hours, take longer breaks between jobs, and occupy more part-time roles than men, McKinsey & Co. reported. 

The other two-thirds result from different career pathways that men and women pursue. Men and women averaged 2.6 role moves per decade of work and crossed comparable skill levels in each new role. However, women are more likely than men to switch to lower-paying occupations, typically ones involving less competitive pressures and fewer full-time requirements, according to McKinsey & Co. 

As women switch jobs, they are less likely to move into occupations projected to grow in demand, the research firm said, instead often moving into shrinking occupations. Should current occupational pathways persist, by 2030, more than three-quarters of working men would be in occupations projected to grow relative to today, compared with less than two-thirds of women. In turn, McKinsey & Co. projects the overall gender pay gap could remain at current levels.