Gender Pay Gap in Nebraska

Nebraska

Since 1981, women have made up the majority of college-educated adults in the United States, and yet women are still paid less than men regardless of education level. Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act in 1963 to prohibit pay discrimination based on gender. However, in 2024, for every $1 men earned, women earned an estimated 80 cents. If the pay gap continues to narrow at the current rate, women will not achieve equal pay until 2052.

Inequitable compensation is a form of gender discrimination in the workplace. It affects the health and wellness of women in the workforce: A 2016 study found that women who earned a lower salary than their male counterparts were more than twice as likely to have depression and four times as likely to have anxiety compared with women earning equal or greater wages than their male counterparts.

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research estimates that achieving pay equality could halve the poverty rate among working women. Halving the poverty rate could, in turn, help reduce poverty among children and families. Closing the gender pay gap can help many women, especially single mothers, achieve economic stability.

Median weekly earnings vary by race/ethnicity, age and educational attainment.

• Asian and white women had the highest earnings differences compared with men of the same race, with Asian women earning 79 cents for every dollar earned by Asian men and white women earning 82 cents for every dollar earned by white men.
• Older women earn less than younger women as a percentage of men's earnings at the same age.
• Women with a high school diploma or higher earn less than women with less than a high school education as a percentage of men’s earnings at the same education level. 

Additionally, women with higher levels of educational attainment are more likely to experience gender discrimination at work and earn less than men performing the same job.

The National Partnership for Women & Families outlines a policy framework for closing the wage gap between men and women through:

• Increasing pay transparency by protecting the right to salary discussions.
• Addressing occupational segregation to balance representation across fields that have  traditionally been male- or female-dominated. 
• Eliminating discrimination and harassment through workplace protections.
• Increasing the minimum wage to improve the economic standing of working people.
• Expanding access to paid leave and caregiving support.

Healthy People 2030 has several objectives related to economic stability overall, including: 

• Reducing the proportion of people living in poverty. 
• Increasing employment in working-age people.
• Increasing the proportion of children living with at least 1 parent who works full time. 
• Reducing the proportion of families that spend more than 30 percent of income on housing.
• Reducing household food insecurity and hunger.

Coan, Tori, and Jessica Mason. America’s Women and the Wage Gap. Washington, D.C.: National Partnership for Women & Families, March 2026. https://nationalpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/americas-women-and-the-wage-gap.pdf.

Jarmin, Ron S. Income in the United States: 2024. Current Population Reports. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau, September 2025. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/p60-286.pdf.

Khattar, Rose, and Sara Estep. What To Know About the Gender Wage Gap as the Equal Pay Act Turns 60. Addressing the Gender Wage Gap. Center for American Progress, June 8, 2023. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/what-to-know-about-the-gender-wage-gap-as-the-equal-pay-act-turns-60/.

Kochhar, Rakesh. The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap. Data Essay. Social Trends. Pew Research Center, March 1, 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/03/01/the-enduring-grip-of-the-gender-pay-gap/.

Platt, Jonathan, Seth Prins, Lisa Bates, and Katherine Keyes. “Unequal Depression for Equal Work? How the Wage Gap Explains Gendered Disparities in Mood Disorders.” Social Science & Medicine 149 (January 2016): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.11.056.