Let’s talk about money—specifically, who’s making it and who’s not getting their fair share. Despite decades of progress toward workplace equality, the gender pay gap remains a stubborn reality for Illinois women. As someone who’s analyzed economic trends for years, I find the persistence of this gap both fascinating and frustrating. The numbers tell a story, but behind those statistics are real women facing real financial consequences every day.
Recent Status of the Gender Pay Gap in Illinois
If you are a full-time working woman in Illinois, you might be taking home a payout of approximately 83.6% of your male counterparts’ wages. While that may seem abstract until you think about it in dollars and cents, women who were employed full-time earn median weekly wages of $1,055 versus the $1,262 for men. That equals almost $207 missing from your paycheck per week—nearly $10,800 disappearing from your bank account on an annual basis.
But when we examine annual earnings, it gets worse. Census data in 2023 showed women working full-time in Illinois earned median annual earnings of $55,956 compared to men who earned $68,599. Consider what you would do with that $12,643 that you are missing each year—that is a decent used car, a sizable down payment on a house or rent or a big chunk of tuition for a college education.
I have spoken to women who learned they earned thousands of dollars less than male coworkers with the same qualifications and similar responsibilities. One Illinois tech worker told me she learned about the $15,000 difference in salary from a departing coworker who revealed his pay information. As she noted, “The realization that I had been underpaid for years was akin to finding out that someone was quietly siphoning off money from my retirement account.”
Historical Trends
| Year | Male Median Income | Female Median Income | Female-to-Male Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | $49,992 | $30,133 | 60.3% |
| 2015 | $46,807 | $29,173 | 62.3% |
| 2020 | $50,234 | $32,369 | 64.4% |
| 2023 | $51,127 | $34,762 | 68.0% |
The good news? We’re moving in the right direction—albeit at a glacial pace. Illinois has seen the women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio improve from 60.3% in 2010 to 68.0% in 2023 when looking at all workers. For full-time workers specifically, the ratio has fluctuated but generally trended upward, reaching 83.6% in 2023 from 80.3% the previous year.
But let’s put this “progress” in perspective. At the current rate of change, women in Illinois won’t achieve equal pay until 2065—more than 100 years after the Equal Pay Act was signed into law. That means a baby girl born today will be approaching retirement age before she can expect to earn the same as her male counterparts. As a parent, this timeline is simply unacceptable.
Who’s Hit Hardest? Demographic and Occupational Differences
Not all women experience the pay gap equally. The intersection of gender and race creates even more severe disparities. While the outline doesn’t provide Illinois-specific racial data, national patterns show white women earn approximately 84% of what white men earn, but Black women earn just 66% and Latina women earn only 51% of what white men make. These patterns likely hold true in Illinois as well.
TThe industry you are in matters a lot. Consider Illinois’ technology industry where the disparity increases exponentially the further up the corporate ladder you climb:
- Female executives earn a shocking 38.5% less than male executives
- Female managers earn 23.7% less than their male counterparts
- Female professionals earn 15.5% less than their male counterparts
I recently talked to a female sales director in the tech corridor of Chicago that discovered she was making 30% less than a male that she had actually trained. “I brought in more revenue and I had been there longer,” she told me. “When I asked what the deal was, I was told that he was ‘more aggressive’ in his salary negotiations. That’s code for ‘we knew we could pay you less.'”
How Illinois Is Fighting Back
Illinois hasn’t been sitting idle. The state has implemented several meaningful measures to address pay inequity:
Isn’t it nonexistent thought? Employing the Illinois Equal Pay Act of 2003 makes illegal for employers to pay 1 wages to male and female employees doing substantially similar work. This began what is now an ongoing movement that has turned into one of the most comprehensive and well-grounded legal structures in the country to fight pay discrimination.
To the state of Illinois, workforce pay transparency is a piece of the solution to the elimination and working against inequality. That is one of the reasons that Illinois requires large employers (100 or more employees) to obtain and maintain an Illinois Equal Pay Registration Certificate, which means that companies that want to obtain an Illinois Equal Pay Registration Certificate can be given a measure of accountability through the process of submitting their compensation data to the Illinois Department of Labor every 2 years, a plan that was developed to hold companies accountable in situations of obfuscation.
What may be most exciting is the new salary transparency law that goes into effect January 1, 2025. Businesses with more than 15 employees have to include a pay ranges and expected benefits in each job posting. After going through as many job searches as I can count, it will completely change the game for all of us. No more applying or interviewing for jobs which would scroll of pay you fairly, if at all.
Behind the Numbers
Understanding why the pay gap exists is essential to eliminating it. Several interconnected factors contribute to this persistent inequality:
Occupational segregation remains a significant issue—women and men tend to work in different fields, with female-dominated occupations typically paying less than male-dominated ones. Even as more women enter previously male-dominated fields like technology or finance, they often encounter wage penalties rather than equal treatment.
The “motherhood penalty” continues to affect women’s earnings. Women are more likely to reduce hours, take career breaks, or seek flexible arrangements to accommodate family caregiving responsibilities. I’ve witnessed brilliant colleagues step back from promising career trajectories after becoming parents, not from lack of ambition but from lack of support systems that would allow them to balance work and family obligations.
Despite legal protections, discrimination and implicit bias in hiring, promotion, and pay decisions continue to affect women’s earnings. These biases can be subtle but powerful—research shows identical resumes are often evaluated differently when they bear women’s names versus men’s names.
Real-World Impact: Economic Implications of the Pay Gap
The economic ramifications of the gender pay gap are far more extensive than a single paycheck. The difference of about $11,000 in pay between men and women for full-time work in Illinois could cover three years of tuition at a community college anywhere in Illinois. Now imagine that amount compounding over a lifetime span of 40 years. That gap could be hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single individual.
This is not simply about one woman — this is about families and communities. Lower wages or salaries mean an inability to spend more as consumers in their local economies. This also means less tax revenue. Closing the gender pay gap could boost Illinois’ economy, and also would mean more Illinois residents would be moving off dependence of SNAP and TANF.
I’ve seen this play out in real time within my own community. Women-headed households struggle more with housing costs, educational expenses, and retirement savings. One single mother I know works three jobs to provide opportunities for her children that a single father in her same profession can afford with one full-time position.
The Path to Pay Equity
The long term ramifications of pay equity may be foreboding, but it’s hard not to be optimistic. Illinois has a tremendous foundation for growth that is established through progressive policies. The newest salary transparency requirements give women a genuine opportunity for access to the facts and information that had previously been kept from them.
Meaningful change requires a multi-faceted approach – such as government regulation, a commitment to public accountability from employers, and a shift in how we value work. Organizations that set out to claim they want to remediate pay equity often find they are attracting and retaining better talent; they do more business, and they do the right thing, simultaneously.
The gender pay gap in Illinois is not an economic issue, it is a moral dilemma. Equal pay is not just a fairness issue, it is acknowledging the entire value women contribute to our economy and our communities. The question is not whether women in Illinois deserve equal pay – but how fast we can accomplish that.
