One in three female workers suspect men in their workplace are paid more

New data from YouGov suggests that despite equal pay laws in many states, about one-third of women with jobs believe that their male counterparts earn more money.

Among Americans currently in work, 44% say that men and women are paid equally at their workplace. About three in 10 (29%) say men are generally paid more than women at their place of work, and far fewer (4%) say women are the higher earners.

YouGov’s data suggests that working men and women may have differing beliefs about their workplaces.

Male workers are more likely than female workers (50% vs 38%) to say that they believe men and women are generally paid equally at their place of employment. In fact, women are just about as likely to think men at their workplace make more money than women (36%), while 23% of men say the same.

About one in five men and women say they don’t know.

Additional data from YouGov Profiles finds that 70% of US adults believe that men and women are still not generally treated equally in the workplace, while only one in five (20%) don’t think this is the case.

Women (76%) are more likely than men (62%) to agree that men and women are treated differently at work. Just over one-quarter (27%) of men – and 14% of women – disagree with this idea.

See full results here.

Related: Global report: attitudes to gender 2021

Methodology: 5,643 US adults were surveyed between March 2 - 3, 2021. Response options included “N/A - I don’t work.” The sample has been rebased to only include adults who indicated that they are employed. The responding sample is weighted to be representative of the US population.

Image: Getty