Women earn about 83 cents to the male dollar (raw, unadjusted)

The number

In 2023, U.S. women working full time earned about 83 cents for every dollar earned by men working full time — the raw, unadjusted gender pay gap, measured before any controls for occupation, hours or experience. ^[1]

What it does and doesn't establish

This is a real, population-wide average, but it compares all women to all men rather than people doing the same job with the same hours and experience, so on its own it cannot prove pay discrimination for identical work. Controlling for occupation, industry, hours and experience shrinks the gap substantially — yet the best economic evidence finds it does not fully vanish, and discrimination cannot be ruled out. Reading the raw number as "17% less for the same job", or dismissing the whole thing as a myth, both misuse it: Is the gender pay gap a myth?