**TLDR:** Women earn 83 cents for every dollar men earn. JobLeads tracked 900,000 job seekers to find out exactly why - and discovered it starts long before the salary negotiation or paycheck.



The gender pay gap is at its narrowest in recorded history - yet women still earn 83 cents for every dollar men earn. So where does the gap actually come from?

JobLeads dug into the job search behavior of nearly 900,000 U.S. users on its platform to find out. Turns out it's not one gap. It's five - and they start compounding from the moment a woman sets her salary expectations.

A few findings that stood out:

* Women's salary expectations are 9.5% lower than men's before a single application is filed
* Men apply to 94% of jobs they click on. Women apply to 81%.
* In Legal, women make up 62% of the workforce - yet earn 26% less than men
* 23% of women search for part-time roles vs 15% of men - and that flexibility comes with a built-in salary penalty
* Jobs requiring more soft skills pay a median $9,650 less. Women's roles skew toward soft skills in every single industry we looked at.



Each gap is small enough to overlook on its own. Together, they add up to the 15% pay gap we see today. At the current pace of progress, pay equity won't arrive until 2088.

  
Check out the full study for more eye-opening analysis.

JobLeads Study: The 15% Gender Pay Gap Starts With What Women Expect to Earn [Just Released]