Does Pay Transparency Close the Gender Wage Gap?

Sophie Bierly

The high-level results of this research show that when respondents agree that pay is transparent in their organization, the gender wage gap vanishes for women doing similar jobs to men when all
compensable factors are adjusted. Analysis of the gender wage gap by industry and occupation largely
follows the same trend. However, there are a few notable exceptions where pay does not quite equalize, mostly in industries with a larger gender wage gap to overcome or in occupations that are significantly
male dominated.

The Equal Pay Act: You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby (But Not All the Way)

Sophie Bierly

In 1963, we could have only dreamed of a woman with a realistic shot at the White House, or a female Speaker of the House or Secretary of State. There were no women heading Fortune 500 companies, jetting into space, or sitting on the Supreme Court. The average women had limited educational opportunities and very few career options, and in the jobs they had, on average, they still only made 60 cents on the dollar that men did.

Modernizing U.S. Labor Standards for 21st-Century Families

Sophie Bierly

Women now make up almost half the U.S. workforce. Despite the central role women play in the U.S. economy, our labor laws
and institutions do little to address the various ways in which women are held back at work. This not only hampers women’s
economic well-being, but also has implications for U.S. productivity, labor force participation, and economic growth. In this
paper, we propose policies aimed at boosting women’s economic outcomes: paid family leave, fair scheduling, and combatting
wage discrimination. We show how enacting carefully designed policies in these categories will better address the challenges of
today’s labor force, enhance women’s economic outcomes, and provide benefits for the national economy.