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Entity details the rise of women's wages throughout the country.

Women’s wages are rising at their fastest rate since the Great Recession of 2008.

And female salaries are finally growing at a faster rate than those of men. They are up at a 3.9 percent year-over-year growth rate while men’s wages are growing at 3.4 percent.

So, ladies, it might be time to ask for a raise, judging by this new data from a study made of recent wages trends by the Federal  Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Switching jobs may be the best way to do that as the bank’s research also revealed that workers who switch to new jobs are getting bigger earnings than those who stay with the same firms.

But the news isn’t all good …

Despite the upturn in female salaries, the pay gap between men and women still remains firmly in place with men earning more than women in virtually all industries. Women in the United States generally earn 79 cents for every dollar men earn, according to a various reports. That number has only improved by one or two cents over the last 20 years.

If change continues at the same slow pace it will take until the year 2059 for women to finally reach parity.

As things currently stand, women would have to work 70 days more than men per year to catch up in the pay stakes.

The reasons for such disparity, according to various economists, can include women negotiating smaller raises than men, choosing flexible hours over a full time position or just being the victims of gender bias. Today women are earning more college degrees than ever, but men at every education level still earn more than female workers.

“Outright discrimination in pay, hiring, or promotions continues to be a significant feature of working life,” says a report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

Women’s median annual earnings last year were $40,742 compared with $51,212 for men, according to that same report.

The biggest wage gap comes in the financial services industry where women account for more than half of all employees but earn 69 cents for every $1 their male colleagues make.

The medical industry has an especially unhealthy pay gap at highly skilled levels. Studies show male cardiologists make 29 percent – about $97,000 a year – more than their female counterparts, and male ophthalmologists receive 36 percent – or $95,000 a year – more than women.

Computer programming is another profession where the pay gap between men and women is greater than the national average, with women in those jobs earning 72 cents for every dollar men make.

Social working is one of the few occupations where women get paid more, on average, than their male colleagues, receiving about $1.08 for every dollar a man earns. The construction industry is close to parity as women earn 97 cents for every $1 earned by men.

Catalyst, a global non profit dedicated to accelerating progress for women, has gathered figures from around the world that show the pay gap of 21 percent between men and women in the United States is dwarfed by some other countries. That gap is 37 percent in Korea and 27 percent in Japan.

In Iceland, the world’s leader in gender equality according to the World Economic Forum, women are still paid an average of 14 percent less than men. To protest this gap in wages, women today have taken to the streets in protest, leaving work at 2:38, the time after which women “effectively work for free,” says NYT Women in the World.

The global wage gap is not predicted to close until 2095. For Iceland’s president of the Icelandic Confederation of Labor, it is “unacceptable” that it would take this long to close the pay gap. “That’s a lifetime,” Gylfi Arnbjörnsson says.

The wage cap doesn’t close the higher women go up the corporate ladder, according to Catalyst’s latest figures on U.S. pay rates. The median weekly earnings for women in management positions last year was $996 compared to $1,383 for men.

The gender wage cap increases with age. Younger women (20-24 years old ) are closer to pay equity and earn 92 percent of men’s earnings compared to  older women (55 to 64 years old) who earn just 76 percent of men’s full-time salary. Women are paid about 90 percent of what men make until the age of 35, at which point earnings for women start to slow down and further widen the pay difference.

Among dual-earner couples, 72 percent of husbands outearn their wives. Married men’s full-time weekly earnings average $1,001 while married women’s full-time weekly earnings average $787.

Men who have never married and are working full-time take home $448 a week on average compared to $607 a week for women who have never married.

In addition to a gender gap, there is also a gap between those of different ethnicities. Catalyst figures show African American women earn 90 percent of African American men’s earnings while Latina women earn 89.7 percent of Latino men’s earnings and Asian women earn 77.7 percent of Asian men’s earnings. White and Asian men outearn women in every single industry.

Women have made great progress but there’s still a long way to go in terms of equal pay for an equal day’s work. A very long way indeed.

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