BUFFALO, N.Y. — How much do you know about the places you spend your money or the people your money goes to?
“Being intentional about it, I think, is really important,” said Jamilia Poles, operational manager of Third Space Cafe and Entertainment, a woman-owned business.
These are questions that come to mind, as the gender pay gap widened for the second year in a row in 2025.
“It does make you feel defeated sometimes,” Poles said.
Recent Census Bureau data found that in 2024, women working full-time, year-round earned 81 cents for every dollar that men earn.
That gap was 83 cents in 2023 and 84 cents the year before.
“When we strike that and look at part-time employment, women are making significantly less. I think it’s about 76 cents to what men make working part-time,” said Sherri Scavone, CEO of the Western New York Women’s Foundation.
In New York, the numbers are higher than the national average, with women working full-time, year-round paid 91.4 cents for every dollar that men were paid in 2024, according to the state Department of Labor.
And while New York had the smallest wage gap in the nation that year, the truth is, it is still a gap that all New York communities face.
“That initial gap we talked about in Western New York, in Erie County, is about $12,000. That’s eight months of child care. That’s 23 months of of groceries. That’s 11 months of of rent,” Scavone said. “So these are very real consequences that are holding women back from being able to thrive in our community and holding our economy back, quite frankly.”
But answering the question of “why?” can be complicated.
“Looking at, number one, enforcement of the law, but also looking just at the biases that exist sometimes of no fault of anyone’s, right,” said Scavone.
As a result, more women are choosing to leave the workforce completely, at a more rapid rate than anytime in the last 40 years, according to the Western New York Women’s foundation.
“Women are saying, now I’m either going to leave the workforce and do something different, start my own business, or I’m going to leave the workforce because paying for child care or finding child care doesn’t make it worth it for me to work,” said Scavone.
And experts say closing the gap is going to take all hands on deck to enforce equity laws and create a more supportive system.
“My mother used to always say there is strength in numbers. So when it comes to feminist issues, the men need to be supportive. When it comes to Black and brown issues, the others need to be supportive. That’s how we get stuff done,” said Poles.