According to a salary analysis conducted by PayScale.com, the age at which women earn the most money doesn’t peak at the end of a steadily increasing line, running from the beginning of their working lives until their retirement. Instead, the peak rate of pay for a woman is at age 39!
Even if there are small increases in salary after the age of 39, these are usually outpaced by the rate of inflation. This means that, in real terms, you tend to earn the same rate of pay for the rest of your career even if you do see pay rises.
Peak pay at 39 may not sound too bad, but men’s salaries go on increasing in size until the age of 48.
Sadly, it’s not the case that women reach the same salary at their peak age of 39 that a man reaches at his peak age of 48. For an American woman, the average peak salary is around $60,000. For an American man, the average peak salary is $95,000.
Why should we care? Especially when money isn’t everything; your main goal in life hopefully isn’t just to make as much money as possible but is to be happy. Quite simply because it’s a relative worth and equality issue. Women still aren’t paid the same as men. There are currently a quarter of UK companies who have a pay gap of more than 20% in favour of men.
In fact, according to the UN’s statement in 2015, the gender pay gap looks set to be with us until 2075.
Peaking at 39? Perhaps women wouldn’t have a salary peak at 39 if it wasn’t for the gender pay gap. Just a thought.
