Editor: we've updated this calculator since this one was published.
We present a 2016 female and male income percentile calculator for the United States. It uses the 2016 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) survey for a source, the same dataset where we derived our 2016 overall income percentile, income percentiles by age, and household income percentile calculators. The ASEC is a March survey and income is all types of income earned between January and December of 2015.
We also have (2013) net worth by age, which uses a different data-set and (of necessity) household breakdown. This is the first year we have computed income percentiles by sex.
Source and Methodology on the Female and Male Income Percentile Calculator
Miriam King, Steven Ruggles, J. Trent Alexander, Sarah Flood, Katie Genadek, Matthew B. Schroeder, Brandon Trampe, and Rebecca Vick. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Current Population Survey: Version 3.0. [Machine-readable database]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2010.
You can reproduce our dataset by starting here: IPUMS-CPS. The filtering step for this calculator matches the general income percentile calculator (linked in the introduction). There are 47,939 male data points and 44,442 female data points representing 86,909,132.73 males and 77,888,992.56 females.
Female and Male Incomes and the Gender-Pay Gap
This is the first year we've separated income distributions by sex. This subject has been the number one most requested calculator on the site, but we've waited until now to run the numbers. Here's your caution: this data isn't normalized for factors to adjust for the gender pay gap.
An un-adjusted reading of the available data does reveal a very large disparity in wages. Most prominently, females in our data-set have a median income of $31,781 while males have a median income of $45,000. Averages come in at $42,630.90 and $63,041.93, respectively.
Mind the Gap: Careful adjustment of male and female earnings still leaves a 3% to 8% unexplained disparity between the sexes.
Before using this calculator to draw conclusions, note that you should account for differences in hours worked, workplace conditions, experience and profession among other factors.
That doesn't entail writing off the gap entirely; careful study cannot account for all of the difference in the earnings of males and females. Studies generally come in between a 3% and an 8% unexplained gap in earnings between the sexes. (See here, here, and here for examples). Please keep that in mind as you explore the data.
We hope you enjoy the female and male income percentile calculator, and learned a bit more about male and female earnings in the United States.
