Women Make 77 Cents for Every Dollar a Man Makes

The gap in pay between men and women seems officially stuck in place: New Census Bureau stats show that women earned 76.5 cents for every dollar that men made in 2012, an amount that hasn't changed much in a decade, reports the Wall Street Journal. Overall, men who worked full time had a median annual wage of $43,300, compared to $37,800 for women.

Things get worse when race is taken into account, notes a piece at Salon. Black women earned 69 cents for every dollar earned by men, and Hispanic women just 58 cents. Women now outnumber men in college, which bodes well for a future narrowing of the gap, but increasing education is "not enough to totally change these trends," says a female economics professor at Cornell. One factor often cited is that women tend to work fewer hours than men so they can take care of the kids.