Though wage data show women slowly catching up to the median weekly wages their male counterparts receive in the same job, the women's-to-men's earning ratio peaked at 81 percent in 2005 and 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, women earned about 80 cents per dollar men took home in 2009. The earliest comparable earnings data, from 1979, showed women that year earned about 62 percent as much as men.

The information in these slides comes from a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report of wage data.