Women hold more U.S. jobs than men but earn 83 cents on the dollar at graduation

September 11, 2026 at 08:53 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Women hold more payroll jobs than men for only the third time in U.S. history, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Yet a NACE study shows female 2023 graduates earned an average starting salary of $59,778, versus $72,190 for men. The crossover arrived without a recession, unlike prior female-majority periods in 2010 and early 2020.

Key Facts

Women held 50.04% of U.S. payroll jobs as of August 2026, the third time in history they have outnumbered men.
Female 2023 bachelor's graduates earned an average starting salary of $59,778, while male graduates earned $72,190, according to NACE.
Over the past 12 months, employed women grew by more than 870,000, while employed men fell by nearly 1.5 million, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Men accounted for only 2% of the 162,000 jobs added in August 2026, with women filling 158,000 positions.
The labor force participation rate for men aged 20 and older fell to 69.4% in August 2026, down from 75.8% in August 2006.

Pay Gap at Graduation

A National Association of Colleges and Employers study found that women who graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2023 earned an average starting salary of $59,778. Men with the same degree earned $72,190, meaning women took home roughly 83 cents for every dollar their male classmates made. The pay gap widens with age, with women overall earning 81 cents for every dollar men earn.

Job Market Shift

Women last held a payroll majority briefly around 2010 during the Great Recession and again just before the pandemic in early 2020. Both prior crossovers followed downturns that wiped out male-dominated construction and manufacturing jobs, but the current shift arrived without a recession. Female-dominated fields such as health care, education, and hospitality have logged consistent gains in the tight labor market. Roughly 7 million fewer men are employed today than in the 1990s.

Structural Decline

Economists Remy Levin and Daniela Vidart of the University of Connecticut argue that young men who come of age amid high unemployment and weak wages grow pessimistic and opt out of work. Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at the Indeed Hiring Lab and former senior regional economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said the decline appears to be a long-term or semi-permanent shift. Some observers point to video games as a factor in men's retreat from the workforce.