The pay gap in the United States costs women millions of dollars each year, and now research shows that some women may be paying another price on top of that. According to a new study published in Social Science & Medicine, women who earned less than men for doing the same work were more likely to report experiences of depression and anxiety—alarmingly so.
The findings, based on data from a 2001-2002 U.S. population-representative sample of 22,581 working adults ages 30 to 65, showed that women were four times more likely to develop an anxiety disorder and two and a half times more likely to be diagnosed with depression when they were paid less than men. When women earned equal pay, the prevalence of anxiety plummeted.
"Our results show that some of the gender disparities in depression and anxiety may be due to the effects of structural gender inequality in the workforce and beyond," Jonathan Platt, who led the study, said in a press release. "The social processes that sort women into certain jobs, compensate them less than equivalent male counterparts...have material and psychosocial consequences."
Katherine Keyes, who worked on the report and is an assistant professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, said the report indicates how desperately American women need solutions to a reality in which they're paid 79 cents (or less) for every dollar paid to men.
"Our findings suggest that policies must go beyond prohibiting overt gender discrimination like sexual harassment," she said, and do more to address systemic issues, including the wage gap, paid parental leave, and flexible work schedules.