The Impact of the Gender Pay Gap

The impact of the gender pay gap is far reaching. A discussion of how women&s;s poverty rates, student loans, economic growth, childhood poverty, and corporate profits are impacted by the gender pay gap is included. In 2017 report, the Institute for Women&s;s Policy Research examined the impact of the gender pay gap on poverty rates among working women and their families. The “full-potential” scenario, (which is a less realistic scenario), assumes that the gender pay gap is fully closed, whereas the “best-in-class” scenario assumes that US states follow the states with the largest improvement toward achieving gender equality over the last 10 years. And the gender pay gap makes it difficult for women to repay their student loan debt, compared to men. As a result of the gender pay gap, women who finish their college degrees are less able to pay their student loan debt than men and end up with higher student loan.