Equal Pay Day in the U.S. this year is March 26, 2026. The date symbolizes how far into the current year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. In other words, it is a marker of the aggregate gender pay gap based on annual earnings. The later in the year Equal Pay Day falls, the larger the overall gap between men’s and women’s earnings for comparable full-time work.
Despite the proliferation of pay transparency laws aimed at reducing pay disparities, the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that the gender pay gap widened for the second consecutive year, marking the first time this has occurred since such data has been collected. This reversal follows a period of gradual narrowing.
For full-time, year-round workers, the female-to-male earnings ratio fell from 84% in 2022 to 82.7% in 2023, which the U.S. Census Bureau described as the first statistically significant annual decrease in the female-to-male earnings ratio since 2003. On September 9, 2025, the Bureau released data for 2024, revealing the female-to-male earnings ratio fell yet again, from 82.7% down to 80.9%.
But what, if anything, does this data tell us about the impact of pay transparency reforms?
How Law and Policy Changes Intersect with the Data
While this data is a useful public benchmark, it reflects broad averages across the labor market and does not control for all job-, industry-, tenure-, or location-specific factors. Additionally, the data captures economy-wide shifts, including changes in labor force participation that can influence the measured gap year-over-year.
As previously reported, these laws will take time to manifest in aggregate metrics. That said, it also depends on where you look.
Location, Location, Location
As of 2026, 14 states and Washington, D.C. have implemented pay transparency laws, including: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
Most of these states have not had pay transparency laws on the books long enough to have sufficient earnings data to assess their impact. However, some research from early adopters, such as Colorado, suggests that those states are reducing the gender pay gap faster than the national average.
According to a March 2024 report by the Women’s Foundation of Colorado, since implementing its pay transparency law in 2021, Colorado has reduced its gender pay gap by 7 cents on the dollar. This means women working full-time in Colorado earn an average of $2,952 more per year than in 2021. The same report, relying on figures from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by economist Max Tejera, states that California and Washington have seen similar results. More specifically, since implementing pay transparency requirements in 2023, the report states California has reduced its gender pay gap by 3 cents on the dollar, while Washington has reduced its pay gap by 5 cents on the dollar. In comparison, the analysis found that non-pay-transparency states, on average, reduced the gender pay gap by 2 cents on the dollar.
Over the next few years, we can expect to see more organizations in additional states undertake similar efforts to assess the impact of pay transparency laws. And because state pay transparency laws vary widely in scope and enforcement, in time, these assessments will likely attempt to assess whether certain requirements have a greater impact on the pay gap than others. For example, many experts believe pay data reporting mandates will have a more significant impact on closing the gap than pay disclosure requirements alone, because it will incentivize employers to conduct pay equity audits and correct any problems before finalizing their reporting.
Societal Forces – Labor Force Participation
Some evidence suggests the widening gender pay gap is, at least in part, reflecting delayed pandemic effects and related labor-force exits. Pandemic-era flexible and remote work arrangements enabled working moms with young children to remain employed, while the return-to-office mandates that followed have pushed many out.
More than 455,000 women left the U.S. workforce between January and August of 2025. In the same timeframe, the labor force participation rate for women aged 25 to 44 with children under age five fell by nearly three percent. This trend appears to have continued into 2026. In its analysis of monthly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report, the National Women’s Law Center found that 81,000 people aged 20 and over left the labor force in December 2025, meaning they are now neither working nor looking for work. These losses were all among women: 91,000 women aged 20 and over left the labor force last month, while 10,000 men aged 20 and over joined the labor force.
According to research from Catalyst, the leading factor cited by women who voluntarily left the workforce over the past year was caregiving responsibilities, including the cost of child care.[1] These concerns are intertwined, as wages are failing to keep up with the rising cost of childcare, which has increased by more than 40% over the last decade.
These labor force exits, in turn, can depress lifetime earnings, stall progression, and ultimately contribute to the pay gap.
[1] https://www.catalyst.org/about/newsroom/2026/caregiving-pressures-women-workforce